NICTA

Be practical with SIM registration approach: MP

He says 80 percent of the populace who live in the rural areas are burdened with the cost to travel into the city for such exercise, something he will be challenging in court.

With 80,000 subscribers in his electorate who are yet to register their SIM cards, he also says it will be difficult to impose such a responsibility with him.  

“I’m happy to sit down with NICTA and suggest some solutions in relation to SIM registration. But we have to be practical, we are not a developed country,” Kramer says.

Punaha: Churches to help register rural population

National Information and Communications Technology Authority CEO, Charles Punaha verified that priests, pastors and layman can be used as reputable persons to identify and vouch for members of their congregation at points of registration.

“We are also going to simplify the form of registration so that the pastors can sign and get as many of their parishioners registered.

Motion filed to dismiss sim registration challenge

The state filed the motion on Tuesday, seeking the dismissal of the entire legal challenge against telecommunication regulator NICTA.

The matter briefly went before Justice Ere Kariko on Wednesday for directions where the state informed the court of the motion. It will be heard next week Monday.  

The state will be asking the court to dismiss the legal challenge on the main ground, the plaintiff, Baundo Francis, has no reasonable cause of action in the proceeding he filed.

ICT access, a top Govt agenda

Information and Communications Minister, Sam Basil opened the one day workshop in Port Moresby.

The National Government through NICTA has a huge task of making sure telecommunications services reach 100% of the population.

While progress has been made so far with the introduction of competition in the ICT Industry, majority of the population still lack access.

The Universal Services and Access Secretariat under NICTA, was set up to achieve just that.

Sim Registration case filed

A young lawyer who claims to represent the majority of people in the rural areas, filed the case last December, seeking to have the court order the entire registration process to be made flexible.

The case went before court last week but could not be heard because court documents were not served to NICTA, its CEO and the State.

Baundo Francis, informed the court today that service of the documents was done yesterday on NICTA CEO, Charles Punaha.

NICTA was not represented in court today because its lawyer is yet to obtain a 2018 practicing certificate.

SIM card registration extended to January 23

Minister Abel has been in consultation with the Minister responsible for Communications, Information Technology and Energy, Sam Basil who has received advice from NICTA on the registration deadline extension.

“Minister Basil and I have considered the issues surrounding the SIM Card Registration Regulation, and I am fully aware of the implications of registration deadline,” the Acting Prime Minister said.

“The extension to 23 January 2018 will minimise the potential for disruptions to phone users while ensuring network security is enhanced.

Deadline set: NICTA

And the National Information and Communication Technology Authority is standing on this, unless there are changes made by the mandated authority. 

This was clarified by Kila Gulo-Vui, the Director, Economic, Consumer and International Affair, in a brief phone interview with Loop PNG.

He said NICTA recognises a few challenges, including the form of identification for mobile network users, especially in rural PNG.

But NICTA applauds the work by the network providers in trying to get most of its users registered.

NICTA to host PRFP-9 forum in Port Moresby

The 9th Policy and Regulation Forum for Pacific (PRFP-9) will be supported by the Extra Budgetary Contributions from Australia and Japan.

More than 100 delegates have confirmed to attend the three-day forum.

Communication and Information Technology Minister Jimmy Miringtoro will open the forum.

The aim of PRFP-9 is to bring together telecommunications and ICT policy makers and regulators from the Pacific Region to discuss issues faced by them.

PNG has more than 900,000 internet users

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.

Internet filtering workshop to be staged in Moresby

The workshop will highlight the importance of the internet filtering policy and the IGIS in Papua New Guinea.

The one-day workshop is organised by the Department of Communication and Information in collaboration with the Office of Censorship.

The theme of the workshop is ‘Empowering PNG through clean and efficient use of ICT’ and it will cover the concept paper on internet filtering system in PNG and internet and email policing.

There’ll be discussions on the political, legal, economic and social implication of internet filtering and the role of filtering system.