Digicel…

Digicel is a mobile phone carrier that was recently given license by the PNG Government to begin operations here in PNG. It is estimated that Digicel has invested close to  K1 billion to date and the company has been busy installing telecommunications towers all over the country. Last Friday the company went live in Moresby with a new mobile service.With Telekom PNG up until now holding a monopoly on the mobile phone market it could be beneficial to the PNG consumers to see a little competition as it would see mobile call costs drastically drop. The cost of mobile calls in PNG is currently one of the highest in the world.

PNG logic at it's best…

Arthur Somare, Michael Somare's son and Government Minister responsible for telecommunications, in his wisdom decided to suddenly and for “unknown” reasons revoke the Digicel license. It was reported that Arthur Somare instructed PANGTEL (telco licensing authority) to revoke Digicel's license after a overnight change to the National ICT Policy.

What a hide to make this sort of decision in the middle of an election.  Also, I would like to know what certain key government figures stand to gain from this turn of events.

Below is a follow-up to this story as it appeared in todays Post Courier newspaper…

Minister’s move on licences wrong: Department

THE Public Enterprises, Infor-mation and
Development Depart-ment yesterday fired a broadside at its own ministerial head
over the Digicel saga.
And the Independent Consumer and Competition Commission lashed out at the Papua
New Guinea Radiocommunications and Telecommunication Techni-cal Authority (PANGTEL)
over its decision to revoke Digicel’s licences.
The department’s acting secretary Henao Iduhu said Minister Arthur Somare’s
directive was illegal while ICCC Commissioner Thomas Abe said PANGTEL should
have consulted the ICCC.
While ICCC expressed surprise, Mr Iduhu said under the Telecommunications Act,
Mr Somare should not have directed PANGTEL to revoke Digicel’s licence.
“PANGTEL is an independent statutory organisation that regulates and implements
government policy,” Mr Iduhu said. “Under the Telecommunications Act, the
Minister cannot direct PANGTEL to revoke the licence of any telecommunication
company.”
While there is alleged political motivation involved and confusion among the
ranks of those state bodies, Mr Abe said: “ICCC is of the view that PANGTEL’s
purported revocation of Digicel’s (Spectrum) licence is illegal”.
Mr Abe said Digicel was issued two licences from ICCC (mobile carrier licence)
and PANGTEL (Spectrum licence) respectively, adding a spectrum licence was
issued to complement the carrier licence.
“There are laws that govern the issuing and the revocation of the two licences
and both ICCC and PANGTEL are bound to comply with the law in issuing or
revoking those licences,” Mr Abe said.