Investment in undersea cable vital

THE new submarine telecommunications cable to be laid between Australia and Papua New Guinea is a much-needed investment in infrastructure, Communication, Information Technology and Energy Minister Sam Basil says.
Canberra recently announced it will deliver the undersea, high-speed telecommunications cable from Australia to PNG in time for the start of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meeting in November 2018.
Basil said the department would stand ready to assist in the “important investment”. The cost of the project is yet to be made known.
“We were doing a visit to Australian cybersecurity system last week. We support the submarine cable and we support Australia’s initiative to provide funding,” Basil said.
“I thank the Prime Minister
and the Minister for Treasury for taking the lead in ensuring we secure the funding and the infrastructure from the Australian government to invest in the undersea cable.”
Basil said it was important for his department and the agencies under it to have new developments in the ICT sector.
“A case in point is the terrestrial network upgrade, the submarine cable bandwidth, and the Apec 2018 ICT arrangement,” he said.
“Both should have come under my ministry. But none of the government organisations under my ministry are playing the leading role in them for whatever reason.”