Ship arrives to start first phase of cable project

THE cable laying ship, Ile De Brehat, owned by Alcatel has been in Port Moresby since last week to start the first phase of the Coral Sea Cable System (CS2) project from Port Moresby to Sydney.
Communication and Energy Minister Rainbo Paita said in a statement on Monday that Ile De Brehat was in PNG waters to land the Port Moresby end of the CS2 in Kila Barracks.
Paita said the government was confident the Coral Sea Cable would be delivered on time.
“The arrival of the vessel Ile De Brehat and the cable landing in Port Moresby shows that the completion of this project is on target for the end of this year as planned,” he said.
“PNG DataCo who is responsible for the National Transmission Network (NTN) will continue as our government’s representative on this project and will work with Vocus and Alcatel to ensure the work on the cable-laying and the shore end operates smoothly.”
Paita said while the CS2 would provide large capacity into Port Moresby, about 100 times more capacity than presently available, the challenge for PNG still remained to ensure that the capacity was distributed across the country.
“The project when completed, will complement the other domestic cable project which will connect all 15 coastal provinces with this modern communication medium, submarine fibre optic cable and up to the Highlands covered by the terrestrial cable,” he said.
“These projects together have the ability to transform how we communicate and conduct business in Papua New Guinea.
“The NTN when completed in the first quarter of 2020, will ensure that we have international connectivity through CS2 and a domestic network to distribute to all provincial capitals empowering current telecommunication caompanies and internet service providers (ISPs) and new players to extend their suite of services to the outer population areas.
“With the aggregation and growth of traffic and demand through sharing of the NTN infrastructure, economics of scale can be achieved hence resulting in lower pricing for our people and the business community.”
The Communications and Energy Ministry, PNG DataCo Ltd and the Kumul Telikom Holdings Ltd (KTHL), together with their partners are determined to ensure these projects are delivered to international standards, on budget and on time so that the most important stakeholder, the people and business houses in the country enjoy the best communications services at affordable prices.