Demand for internet expected

THERE will an increase in demand for internet services when the Coral Sea cable is completed, Telikom PNG chief executive officer Xavier Victor says.
Victor told the Digital Economy Forum in Port Moresby last week that “we expect consumers to have greater access”.
He said developing digital literacy to maximise the benefits from these services would lead to an increase in demand.
Victor said technology was the catalyst for creativity, innovation and digital transformation.
Digital economy means e-business, e-commerce and mobile money as well as access to information like e-learning, e-health.
“We talk about the prices of the internet coming down, wholesale prices, the trend in the wholesale prices,” Victor said.
“But on the domestic front – I represent the operator – we are challenged by a lot of things. We continue to look at bringing the pries down and but infrastructure still remains our biggest challenge, electricity.”
He said the challenges included the cost of operation associated with limited road access to parts of the country, high cost of transportation, risk-security, vandalism, landowner claims, natural disasters, Government policies and regulatory environment, foreign currency pressure and internal inefficiencies which includes human development and systems.