Telikom promises better service

 Telikom PNG chairman Mahesh Patel says people can expect a faster and more reliable fixed and mobile broadband access this year.

He took Prime Minister Peter O’Neill on a short tour of Telikom PNG’s Ela Beach Exchange, the site of the National Broadband Network programme.

Patel said the visit was to show O’Neill what Telikom had achieved over the past 18 months.

Telikom in July 2013 signed a US$203 million (K630m) contract to partner with Huawei to provide the network designed to provide new services such as e-health, e-education, digital TV, e-Government applications and others. 

“The Government has supported Telikom with the Exim Bank facility with Huawei as our partners,” Patel said.

“Over the 18 months, we’ve developed quite a state-of-the-art technology which we want to showcase. This could be launched before the end of this year.”

Patel said about US$80 million had been spent so far and the balance would be rolled out across the country.

“It will really be a state-of-the-art, the best and the fastest technology,” he said. “The idea is, with the technology, the cost is going to be affordable.What Telikom is trying to do is enhance the customer experience.

“We don’t want to put anything on the market until the network is very stable.

“Customer experience is going to be out of this world.”