PNG has more than 900,000 internet users

With the increase in technology, Papua New Guinea now has over 900,000 internet users and 3.3 million people out of the total population of 8 million use a mobile phone.

This was revealed today by the National Information and Communications Technology Authority (NICTA) CEO Charles Punaha at the Internet Filtering and Policy workshop in Port Moresby.

Internet users have increased immensely since 2007 during the liberation of the mobile sector with two new mobile licenses issued by NICTA.

Punaha explained that prior to 2007, there was a monopolistic ICT sector with Telikom having exclusive rights.

This saw very low penetration, high-priced services and the dual regulatory regime was costly and timely.

Statistics from NICTA reveal that with the increase of mobile phone networks, 11.67 percent of the PNG population now have access to internet.

Punaha said there must be a policy in place to regulate and monitor the use of internet with the current high number of users – and the numbers will continue to increase.

In addition, he explained that an internet filtering system is the best way to protect young people from accessing pornography and commit other cybercrimes related to the use of internet.

Author: 
Quintina Naime