Talks on internet prices

NATIONAL Information and Communication Technology Authority (Nicta) is in consultations with PNG DataCo to set the wholesale internet price at US$100 (K341.12) per mbps (megabytes per second) when the Coral Sea Cable is commissioned, chief executive officer Charles Punaha says.
He said that would be the anticipated starting price which would decrease over the years as utilisation levels and demand increased.
Punaha told the recent PNG Business Regulators Summit that the wholesale bandwidth in PNG currently cost US$300 (K1030.18) per mbps which was the highest in the Pacific and the cost needed to be lowered.
“We have to be competitive to what other countries in the region are also offering,” he said.
“We are now consulting with PNG DataCo to make sure that they are in agreement with what we are proposing.
“The cost of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services is very high and we are trying to bring that down both for business and individual Papua New Guineans.
“We started a public enquiry process looking at pricing principals at how the country will benefit from this facility with so much capacity that will be now available to the market.”
He said the ICT industry in Papua New Guinea would be transformed once Coral Sea cable network was commissioned for use with much higher internet speeds.
“The total capacity of that cable will be 20,000 gigabits which equates to 20 terabits that’s almost 1,000 times more than the capacity we have at the moment,” he said. “That will totally revolutionise PNG’s ICT industry.
“When it lights up at the launching, the capacity will be 200 gigabits which is more than 200 times what we currently have.”