​Kumul Telikom eyes undersea cable

​Kumul Telikom aims to build an undersea fibre-optic cable to Sydney, Australia, in a bid to reduce telecommunications wholesale prices by two-thirds.

Speaking at the Business Advantage Papua New Guinea Investment Conference in Sydney recently, Kumul Telikom chairman Mahesh Patel said the idea has been with him since taking over as chairman.

However, to reduce the price to consumers, it will be necessary to create more ISPs and ‘more retail focus’, says Patel.

“Four years ago, we had poor quality internet and people were paying K200 per gigabyte; today the rate is K25 and I think that can go down further.”

Business Advantage PNG reports that Kumul Telikom is looking at different funding arrangements from various sources, while a submission to government is also near.

“We have the option of private sector participation,” Patel said. “The expectations of returns are obviously very high there.

“We have the World Bank, who are keen to fund it – it is a slow process, but cheap money.

“Sydney is very well connected, and we can get it done very quickly.

“We have got other private financial institutions who are looking at ‘build, lease and transfer’. Again, an expensive model but it can be done quickly. All three options are on the table.

“We are looking at going to the Cabinet as early as in the next couple of weeks with a proposal to proceed.”

Patel believes Kumul Telikom has an improved ability to fund the project, following the government’s decision bring all state-owned telcos under a single board.

He added bmobile’s commercial relationship with Vodafone UK has also been useful.

“Telikom’s engineers are excellent but they lack exposure to international standards.

“Aligning ourselves with an international operator (like Vodafone) will help our people,” he said.

“All we need to do is see what is happening in the rest of the world: You are talking about e-commerce, mobile apps, e-education, e-health, a whole bunch of these can be moved on to the platforms.

“As soon as the undersea cable is in, we will have the capacity to drop the price to the standards that they get in Australia.”

Author: 
Cedric Patjole