Loko: Internet access vital

 INTERNET access is the way to go if Papua New Guinea wants to develop and catch up with the rest of the world, former Telikom PNG chief executive Peter Loko says.

Speaking last Friday at the launching of the National Weather Service’s new K118,000  new VSAT communication system, which will provide real-time weather conditions in PNG at 25% of the cost charged by internet service providers (ISPs), Loko urged government departments, schools and political leaders to use the new technology.

NWS acting director Samuel Maiha said the new system was a technological revolution for the organisation and PNG.

The system, set up by local company Wantok Wireless, which is owned and operated by USA-based PNG telecommunications and satellite engineer Mathew Wari and his family, offers unlimited internet usage, fixed bandwidth, set monthly payment, and single satellite link into USA via Hawaii, and then fibre into mainland USA.

Wari said the VSAT system was the first-ever designed and set up completely by a fully Papua New Guinean team, and commended Maiha for believing in homegrown intellectual and technical abilities.

The new system gives Port Moresby direct access to major global weather data centres in Australia, Japan, South Korea, China, USA, Germany, and Russia.

Another local company, Lucid Technologies PNG, set up the proxy server and internal local area network (LAN) connections, which will allow NWS staff to have satellite access to real-time weather conditions in PNG and around the world.

‘Information technology (IT) is the way to go,” Loko said.

“This new system links PNG, and in a single hop, it goes straight to the USA.

“This is what we need. It cuts out all the problems with networks.

“This is why this new system will be invaluable to this country.”