Fiocco: No change in cost

By DALE LUMA
THE Coral Sea Cable System (CS2) from Sydney to Port Moresby will not change the cost of doing business, according to the Port Moresby Chamber of Commerce and Industry (POMCCI).
Chamber president Rio Fiocco told The National that the cable might improve reliability but businesses would later assess whether any real commercial changes eventuated.
“While there has been a lot of talk about the cable having the effect of reducing costs to consumers, the general cost of business remains the same,” he said.
“So we remain cautious as to whether we will see any drastic change to retail prices just yet.
“However, we do expect to see a marked improvement in reliability which will be a very welcome improvement by our members.”
Comparing PNG businesses’ use of technology to other countries, Fiocco said: “On a medium range, we have a lot of innovative companies but off-island bandwidth has been patchy in the past.
“We would hope that the wholesale provider, DataCo (PNG Ltd), can regain control and maintain stability.
“A lot of innovation in technology comes from cloud operations and reliable networks are imperative for this to happen.”
The CS2 is supposed to be ready and rolled out by PNG DataCo Ltd on Jan 1 this year following tests done last December.
The company announced that with the CS2 commercialised, initial link up would be 100 gigabytes per second.
The National could not confirm with PNG DataCo Ltd if the cable was already in use.