Post Courier has reported that the Coral Sea high speed communications submarine cable earmarked for Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands is set to revolutionise the ICT sector.
Chairman of Kumul Telikom Holdings Andrew Johnson gave a review into how much the ICT space and country will greatly benefit from what is expected to be a top of the line cable that can compete in terms capability in a first world comparison.
“I have been involved with the cable, but the credit for what is being called the Coral Sea cable should actually go to the Prime Minister (Peter O’Neill) who actually negotiated that with (Australia) Prime Minister Turnbull, that is was great achievement from that,” he said.
“That cable is going to be absolutely revolutionary, if we look at a couple of things and the quality of the deal that has been done.
“If we look at the best cable from Australia to America is 6 terabits, this is three times as much as that. This is a 20 terabit cable.”
A terabit is used for measuring the amount of data that is transferred in a second between two telecommunication points.
“This is an unbelievably capable cable we are getting and we are paying, which is about to be released separately, but we are basically paying a very small fraction of the cost of it,” Mr Johnson said.
“It is a very good deal and it will go live at the end of 2019 and the final contract will get signed at the end of this month between the group who is part of the Australian government with the Solomons (Islands) and PNG in there.
“But when it goes live it is going to fundamentally revolutionise the telecommunications in this country on the basis that 10 years ago I owned a satellite company that actually did business here, that was sold a number of years ago, it cost us K4500 thousand dollars to buy a terabit of data.”
He said once it is live all data prices are expected to plummet.
“What this means is that what hasn’t been accessible to Papua New Guineans in the past like Netflix you could get in Australia for like AUD$10 a month we are going to be able to start selling services like that at those sort of prices.”
“PNG is just going to absolutely, fundamentally open up to the world,” Johnson added.
Earlier reports estimated the cable to cost AUD$200 (K505 million) and the Australian Government is expected to put up two thirds of the cost.
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| Third from left Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Charles Abel and, ICT and Energy Minister Sam Basil of Papua New Guinea at a panel discussion of PNG Digital Economy Forum in Port Moresby. |
Source: Post Courier newspaper, one of the two dailies in PNG
