Government, Nicta urged to impose obligations

By CLARISSA MOI
THE Government and the National Information Communications Technology Authority (Nicta) should impose appropriate rollout obligations to ensure new entrants into the telecommunication sector become truly national, according to PNG Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PNGCCI).
President Ian Tarutia said this when welcoming the recent announcement by Information and Communications Technology Minister Timothy Masiu on the third mobile service operated by Digitec Communications Ltd into Papua New Guinea’s telecommunications space.
Tarutia told The National that a new entrant would ensure competition and help to expand the market.
“New players offer new ideas, new packages, more options for consumers and a diversity of product offerings,” he said.
“We expect those new offerings will benefit consumers as long as the new entrant is prohibited from cherry-picking the lucrative segments of the market.
“In that regard, the PNGCCI urges the Government and Nicta to impose appropriate rollout obligations to ensure that any new entrant becomes truly national as did Digicel when the market was liberalised in 2007.
“It will only be through real investment that long-term benefits will be realised by all of our members and people generally, whilst – importantly – ensuring that incentives for existing operators to continue to develop their networks are not undermined.
“Realistically, we can expect the new competitor to focus on areas that are less expensive to cover, and try to compete on price.”
Tarutia said this raised a question about how consumers outside the main urban areas, such as those in Alotau, Porgera and Kavieng, might be impacted.
“Unless stringent rollout obligations are imposed, these consumers will potentially miss out on the benefits of competition and see their services impacted, as attention is diverted away from more costly parts of PNG.”
He added that the PNGCCI remained concerned about the effectiveness of the current role of the State with respect to retail internet prices particularly the manner in which PNG DataCo was operating and the pricing of wholesale internet to its customers.
“Data is an essential tool for nation-building, much the same as roads, hospitals and schools, and it is incumbent on the Government and Nicta to ensure that wholesale pricing is truly cost-based as envisaged in the legislation,” he said.
“Given that PNG is a relatively high cost business environment, we expect the new competition to drive lower prices across all segments of the market.
“However, it is important that service quality is not compromised as a consequence of lower prices.
“While it is not yet clear exactly what Digitec has planned, the numbers do appear to be very ambitious given the obvious challenges at present.”
Tarutia said PNGCCI hoped new operators would invest in the country’s ICT space and it stands ready to work with the Government’s initiatives to liberalise the market further.