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| NICTA CEO Charles Punaha. |
By MATTHEW VARI
Sunday, October 9, 2016 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)
IN its response to a recent report in reasons behind the high cost of internet services in the country- the National Information and Communications Technology Authority (NICTA) has stated that despite the rates of internet prices in the remain high, the regulator said prices have dropped considerably over the last 10 years.
NICTA CEO Charles Punaha, said the role of ICT services, namely internet services as an enabler economic development in other economies is no difference for Papua New Guinea.
“Everyone knows the importance of ICT services and we all a trying to work together to make the cost affordable and accessible so our people can utilize ICT services for economic development.”
“When NICTA was established we opened up competition in the market, open up access so there is now open competition unlike in the past where we only had Telikom that was providing international connectivity.”
“One of the main things that we look at is the wholesale service, that is why in 2013 we made the recommendation to the minister he had declared wholesale service as a declared service- meaning now that the providers of ICT service at the wholesale level will ensure that it is cost based, that it is not anti-competitive, and allows for open access that is why we have seen a big reduction of prices in the last few years,” the CEO said.
He said despite this the regulator is still unable to address prices at the retail level, due to limitations in the act that prevents direct controlling.
“Our act (National Information Communications Technology Act) provides for arbitration and negotiation, which means that we allow the industry to negotiate and in the event they not able to reach a decision, if one party is aggrieved then they come to us and we investigate it and arbitrate.”
“In most cases unfortunately there has been some market failure in the sense that people are not coming to us when there is a breakdown in discussions at the retail level. That has not stopped us from looking at the retail end.”
“With that fact we have undertaken consultation process to look at the entry level prices and we are now currently monitoring them over the next 5 years and see if we can assist in trying to reduce the cost of the internet services.”
He also made references to current project that may see huge drops in internet prices by as much as 90 percent when the country’s first IXP (Internet Exchange Point) will be commissioned sometime at the end of the year.
“There has been some issues with trying to get the machines into the country. At the moment we can say that almost everybody- all the Internet service providers including the main ones Bmobile, Telikom, Digicel they have all agreed to come in and join us and that would allow for pairing and for them also contribute to reduce the cost of internet service,” Punaha said.
“We have also announced in the meeting that Google has agreed to join us by coming into the IXP that we are hosting.”
In respect to reaching un-served areas in the country’s remote areas not economically viable for communication operator to enter- NICTA in partnership with the World Bank is subsidizing costs to open up those remote locations.
“We provide a subsidy for them to go in so the processes we have undertaken now with projects in about 7 sites and we are now addressing the voice data and at the moment all the remote sites in Papua New Guinea are 2G (second-generation wireless telephone technology).”
“We are providing a subsidy for service providers to go in and upgrade that service to a minimum of 3G (third-generation wireless telephone technology) and that project is currently underway.”
“Recently we awarded contracts to both Digicel and Telikom by regions for them to operate the existing 2G sites to 3G sites to allow for access.”
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