From the Gavamani Sivarai
Minister for Communications and Information, Hon. Patrick Tammur says he is confident that the new ICT policy approved by Cabinet recently will provide a strong platform for competition in the telecommunications sector. Mr. Tammur said the policy will also help transform Telikom PNG into a strong competitive public enterprise under Phase One of the ICT Policy implementation before the full competition is introduced in the telecommunications market. Minister Tammur said government’s ultimate aim is to introduce open competition in all ICT sectors.
Phase 1 will involve a continuation of the network based mobile competition with certain reserved rights remaining with Telikom as the General Carrier while mobile competition will remain as it currently exists and be given further opportunty to grow.
Phase 2 will be the introduction of open competition.
He said international experience supports a staged approach to introducing competition for telecommunications services. “This staged approach will allow us to builld on what has already started and also will allow us to bring the State owned Telikom PNG into the competitive world” The following are key features of the revised National ICT Policy:
- Existing structure remains: Telikom will continue as the General Carrier and a mobile carrier with competing network in the mobile network. This revises Governaments earlier proposal which would have seen a temporary network monopoly to Telikom during Phase 1. This temporary network monopoly is no longer part of the Government Policy. PNG consumers will continue to enjoy the benefits of mobile competition with mobile carriers having rights and obligations to develop their own networks,
- One General Carrier: During Phase 1, Telikom PNG will continue to operate as the only general carrier and as a mobile carrier under its existing licences. No general carrier licences will be issued to mobile carriers or others during this period.
- Reserved Rights: As the only holder of a General Carrier licence, Telikom will continue to have reserved rights over the fixed line network and the international gateway. No general carrier rights will be granted to mobile carriers in respect of the fixed line network or the international gateway during Phase 1.
- Digicel: Digicel will continue as a mobile carrier using its own network infrastructure and operating in accordance with its licences and the law.
- Promote efficient development of backbone network: Both General and Mobile Carriers will have the right to develop the backbone network. The law will be changed to make this clear while at the same time removing legal uncertainties from Digicel’s operations. Under the current law, it is a reserved right to the General Carrier to supply services with Satellite and Microwave facilities. After the proposed amendment, the law will recognise the Mobile carriers joining the General Carrier to build a strong backbone network which is important to the primary objective of greater access to telephone services to all parts of Papua New Guinea.
- Transform Telikom: Telikom will undergo a strict program of transformational change. The Minister of Public Enterprise and the IPBC will continue their efforts to secure the reform of Telikom for the benefit of all Papua New Guineans.
- Interconnection: The interconnection regime will be revised to help to secure early interconnection between carrier networks. The Government does not want to see a repeat of the delays experienced in connecting the Digicel and Telikom networks over the past two weeks and will legislate to assist the process.
- Private Networks: Private networks will be licenced under a new licencing regime to be incorporated into amendments to the Telecommunications Act.
- Regulatory Powers: The mandate of the telecommunications regulators will remain as they currently are with ICCC as economic regulator. However, NEC has also directed my Ministry to undertake a broad review of regulatory structures and processes.
- Rural Development Fund: NEC Further directed my Ministry to initiate moves to create a Community Services Obligation regime to apply in the telecommunications sector. The primary objective will be to provide a strong funding basis to assist in the development of telecommunications network and the provision of telecommunications services to residents in rural centres. This review will consider the desirability of establishing, funding and management of a Rural Telecommunications Development Fund. The review is to take place in Phase 1.
Minister Tammur said “the duration of Phase 1 has not been fixed by this policy decision because the government needs to firstly assess the state of the market, manner in which competition is operating and progress in Telikom’s transformation before expanding competition. He said it is for this reason that NEC has again directed my Ministry to report to NEC by 1st March 2009, with a view to establishing a timetable for the introduction of Open Competition in Phase 2.
“Necessary amendments to the Telecommunications Act to implement Government Policy will be introduced into Parliament soon” the Minister said. The Government has shown that it has listened to business houses, consumers, regulators and other stakeholders as it pursues national interest objectives which led to a successful endorsement of the ICT Policy by cabinet last week” said the Minister.
He expressed confidence that the government has achieved a balanced National ICT Policy that provides a solid foundation for the future development of the ICT sector in Papua New Guinea. ICT is recognised as a tool for national development under the governments Medium Term Development Strategy 2005-2010.
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More Information:
Early versions of the ICT Policy papers:
- IPBC Covering letter
- PNG Telecommunications Deregulation Blueprint (May 2007)
- National Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Policy
ICT Workshop Coverage:
4 comments
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March 3, 2008 at 2:29 am
dtabureguci
Bula Emmanuel,
How are you? Thank you for keeping us updated on developments in PNG’s ICT industry. I wonder about this interconnect issue between PNG Telikom and Digicel…one obviously has a very old network while the other has a state-of-the-art. I wonder if the two systems would be compatible? For example, can the old network cope with traffic on the new network? etc, etc…
By the way, is there an online version of the Gavamani Sivarai? I would like to download a copy.
best,
d
March 3, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Emmanuel
Hi D, I’m good and thanks again.
The issue of compatibility has come up with each side blaming each other for delays etc. On a technical level it really does have to be done right and personally I don’t think it should be rushed because if it effects the billing and people are not priced appropriately then it will become a huge mess.
On the Policy side of things, I’d really like to know how Digicel and B-mobile can be competitive by sharing the same Gateway? As it stands right now I believe Digicel uses it’s own Gateway so it can be classified also as a General Carrier but it appears to me that Digicel has been allowed to continue this way without fuss. In other words the government is saying one thing and doing another in regards to licencing appropriately in the industry. I raised that issue here.
As for the Gavamani Sivarai, sorry D they do not have a website. It is just a newspaper. I had to type up that article you see above.
March 3, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Emmanuel
This piece was from the Editor of the National newspaper:
Goliath versus Goliath
OH for goodness sake. Both Telikom and Digicel employ legions of technical specialists. These people are fully aware of what makes their respective networks tick and what causes problems when they don’t.
Last Friday we carried a lengthy item that showed the abysmal level of co-operation between the two organisations.
On the one hand Digicel gave a technical explanation for the continuing delay in the connection process between the two networks; it was lucid, accessible to the ordinary reader and if true, made perfect sense.
On this occasion, Telikom’s response was a somewhat petulant accusation that Digicel “was playing its usual delaying tactics”, and “trying to avoid the issue of interconnection”.
That response avoided dealing with the supposed facts outlined by Digicell that indicated negativity on the part of Telikom.
To us, as we suspect holds true for most readers, the more detailed aspects of mobile phone technology remain a closed book.
What we do know is that the arrival of Digicel in PNG created a whole new communications scenario for our people.
The advertisements show villagers in distant parts of a number of provinces receiving phone calls from family members in the towns and cities
They’re not just good public relations – they’re an accurate reflection of a transformation that has taken place in our country.
In common with hundreds of others, we’ve had personal experience of this new reality; the result is that we’ve purchased a mobile telephone and opened a whole corridor of previously locked doors. And this new scenario is not restricted to PNG calls.
If there is one sector that Telikom has always failed to address, it has been the sky-high rates charged for overseas calls, even in the case of neighbouring countries.
That has never been good enough, despite the lengthy technical statements occasionally released by Telikom seeking to explain and justify those charges.
These simply left the average members of the public wondering why virtually all other countries had cheap international calls while PNG seemed to be trapped in some medieval communications time warp.
The fact is that we now know we can talk to loved ones overseas without sending the family bankrupt.
We read the lengthy statement from the Minister for Communications last week; from what was said we were unable to determine whether the excellent cheap service provided by Digicel to those wishing to make overseas calls will continue or not.
That is the type of question the public wants straightforward answers to, rather than a tour of the Government’s highly fluid communications policy.
Over and over again, the public has been assured that the Somare Government is committed to full-scale competition in the market place.
Digicel’s initial response to that open door policy was to enter PNG and spend a small fortune installing communications equipment in record time throughout a significant part of PNG.
This is something that Telikom, for whatever reason, has long been unable to do. Few members of the PNG public who have lived through the head-on marketing clash between Telikom and Digicel are likely to forget the competitive excitement – the nation was electrified.
For once we were seeing results and not promises and we were clearly reaping benefits from competition. We trust the Government will not now attempt to truncate the services available as a result of that competition.
For if Telikom’s monopolistic presence, hidden this time behind a cloak of up-front competition, reverts to being an obstacle to speedy, inexpensive and efficient domestic and international communications, then we think that’s much too high a price to pay.
The real benefit of competition is not only the eye-opening advent of Digicel. It is also the very real stimulus applied to Telikom.
For whether the Government wants to maintain Telikom as the pre-eminent communications network or not, the public has seen and experienced a new vision and are unlikely to accept anything less.
Competition has given us Digicel – but it has also given Telikom the chance to show that it can perform every bit as well as its Irish competitor. Provided the playing field is level, continuing competition between the two telcos can only bring benefits to our people and our country.
March 5, 2008 at 9:42 pm
dtabureguci
Vinaka Emmanuel.
yes, the sweet taste of competition…who would want it to stop! I would imagine the only thing that would really be stalling the govt on its plans for PNG’s ICT industry would be Telikom’s old and tired infrastructure. That would pose the real difficulty during interconnection or even closing Digicel PNG’s gateway. I wonder just how incompatible the two systems are. One former Telikom network told me Telikom has not upgraded in years. So I guess getting the two networks to talk to each other would be like you talking to me in Pidgin and I am talking to you in Fijian! And neither of us knows English! :))
My very best wishes to PNG.
Best regards,
d