Punaha warns landowners

DISGRUNTLED landowners tampering with telecommunications towers would be charged with a criminal offence.
National Information and Communication Technology Authority (NICTA) chief executive officer Charles Punaha was responding to media reports that disgruntled landowners in East Sepik would switch off power supply to Digicel towers and eventually remove them if the mobile company did not offer better benefit sharing packages for the use of their land.
He said dissatisfied landowners should use available avenues to resolve disputes and not resort to irresponsible and unlawful actions which would only deny them of much-needed communication services – something which has been lacking for years on end.
The manner in which the disgruntled East Sepik landowners have decided to pursue their concerns may amount to a criminal offence pursuant to section 268 under the new National Information and Communications Technology Act 2009, the penalties of which are, a fine not exceeding K200,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 15 years or both.
“Major telco companies like Digicel, Telikom PNG and bemobile invest hundreds of millions of kina for their services to all parts of the country and people must show appreciation and take responsibility in looking after these facilities and infrastructure,” Punaha said.
East Sepik, along with Chimbu, have been selected to trial the World Bank funded rural communications project to be implemented by NICTA under the government-approved universal access scheme (UAS), which aims to improve access to affordable and reliable telecommunications infrastructures and services in remote areas.
The pilot project for the two provinces will cost about K20 million each.
Selection of the two provinces for the demonstration projects was done on the basis of the expected economic benefits per inhabitant in those provinces and representation of different geographic regions.
In addition, internet cafes will be set up in more than 60 district centres throughout the country under the UAS and the funding provided under the scheme will be for successful bidders to implement the projects and landowners may negotiate with operators or the successful bidders for the use of their land to put up telecommunication facilities including towers and VSats.
NICTA said that any negative action by landowners in East Sepik would only halt the provision of services to the rural areas and send the wrong signal to potential investors.