Dream of high speed broadband soon a reality

 THE dream of high speed broadband in Papua New Guinea has taken a step closer, with the completion of a fiber-optic cable connecting Gulf with the PNG LNG plant site, 20km northwest of Port Moresby.

The cable was laid under a joint venture agreement between ExxonMobil, Oil Search Ltd, Southern Highlands provincial government and the Independent Public Business Corporation (IPBC).

Under the deal, the cable will also serve as part of the ambitious 

K685 million National Transmission Network (NTN) – PNG’s national broadband network.

“Our project telecommunications plan included fiber-optic cable from Hides to the LNG Plant and Port Moresby,” explained Esso Highlands managing director Peter Graham at last week’s Australia-PNG Business Forum in Port Moresby. 

“We recognised an opportunity for participation by third parties to share costs and benefits. 

“The offshore section, which follows the route of the offshore pipeline, has just been finished. 

“While this cable will improve telecommunications for long-term operations of the PNG LNG Project, there are clear benefits for the nation as high-speed telecoms are opened up across a broad swath of PNG.”

The overall NTN roll-out is being managed by the IPBC, whose chairman Thomas Webster said: “This is a transformational project for education and for business.

“It will transform the way business is done in the country.”

Webster said the ultimate goal of the NTN is to provide fast reliable broadband to the country’s major population centres by connecting them to the international gateway in Madang on PNG’s northern coast.