By WIlliam Yep
If fibre is the gold standard of modern connectivity, then Papua New Guinea must ask an uncomfortable question: why are so many consumers choosing satellite instead?This is not an attack on fibre.
Fibre exists, and in any properly functioning digital economy it should be more reliable than satellite — even low earth orbit (LEO) services such as Starlink.Yet the lived reality for many Papua New Guineans is that the current fibre backbone, particularly the Kumul Submarine Cable Network (KSCN), has failed to deliver what it promised: reliable, fast, and affordable internet. That failure explains the shift. Consumers are not choosing Starlink out of novelty or ideology. They are choosing it because it works.
THE BROKEN PROMISE
The issue, therefore, is not whether fibre matters — it does. The issue is choice. Consumers should be free to choose between what is offered locally and what Starlink provides, without regulatory obstruction designed to protect a monopoly rather than serve the public.
DataCo borrowed approximately K879 million to construct a fibre-optic cable intended to connect at least 15 coastal and maritime provincial centres, with the stated aim of lowering internet costs and expanding access to high-speed broadband nationwide. Years later, internet remains unreliable, expensive, and slow. Broadband coverage in Port Moresby itself is limited, let alone in the rest of the country.
THE REAL MEASURE OF SUCCESS
These outcomes demand scrutiny. How is this loan being repaid? Who is ultimately paying for it? Consumers should not bear this burden. Fibre-optic broadband should be treated as state capital infrastructure, not a cost recovered through constrained access and high wholesale pricing.
DataCo often points to falling mobile data prices as evidence of success. But mobile pricing is a retail metric. As a wholesale provider, DataCo should be judged on broadband availability — how many homes and businesses can plug into a high-speed fibre wall socket at prices comparable to global standards. On that measure, the performance is lacking.
THE COST OF INACTION
Until wholesale fibre costs are decoupled from loan repayment pressures, Starlink will remain the rational choice for users seeking reliability. In today’s world, internet access is not a luxury; it is a critical utility.
Cloud services, digital trade, remote work, education, and modern finance all require 24/7 high-availability connectivity. A state-monopolised infrastructure that cannot meet this standard holds the entire economy back.Reliable internet is the backbone of the fourth industrial revolution. As long as PNG’s broadband remains expensive and intermittent, local businesses will remain uncompetitive globally.
Open competition — not protectionism — is the only proven way to turn the KSCN from a debt-laden asset into true nation-building infrastructure. The status quo is unacceptable. The standard we walk past is the standard we accept.Papua New Guinea deserves better — and regulators and service providers, both wholesale and retail, must start working for consumers, not for monopolies.
AUTHOR
William Yep is a commercial lawyer with over ten years’ experience specialising in company law, mergers and acquisitions, telecommunications, banking, and finance. His work focuses on regulatory frameworks, market competition, and the intersection of infrastructure development and commercial policy in Papua New Guinea.
This is 100% true. Many of us are paying high prices for slow and unreliable internet. Outside major towns, connectivity is still a struggle. Articles like this are important because they reflect what ordinary Papua New Guineans are actually going through, not just what reports and announcements say.
We in rural and remote areas desperately need starlink. The fibre-Optic system is going to take ages to reach us.
Exactly, Starlink should be allowed in PNG. Better connectivity is a need as it should be accessible and Cheaper. Not the opposite! while we spend more on it’s consumption when it’s accessibility is very slim and very poor in all areas. Industrialized city as Lae has the very poor coverage at all.
not forgetting the Education, Business, Banking sectors, all are moving at a fast space towards digitalization and being paper less.
However, it is Just scary how monopoly is strategizing to reap us ordinary citizens to bear the cost of the government. Totally unacceptable! It’s a free market economy and there shouldn’t be any better alternative than this competitor giving real time competition to the Monopoly, such a sleeping giant.
PNG faces unique challenges: rugged geography, isolated islands, and high infrastructure costs. If we Continue to Copy Western models (analogy) it will not work. see from the logic of Applying first prinicple thinking, then it will look like this:
Connectivity Scenario: Skipping the “Analogy” of Fiber
The Old Way: Trying to lay undersea cables or fiber through the Highlands is very expensive, prone to damage and poses high maintenance).
First principle Thinking Logic: Use “low-earth orbit” (LEO) satellites like Starlink. It bypasses the physical geography. why build a 500km road for a data line when you can just point a dish at the sky?
It is simply worrying for Citizens to see that Government and Regulatory Bodies can’t Push for regulatory environments & Policies that allow satellite tech to be an alternative for traditional copper/fiber infrastructure. simply let the Citizens choose!
Absolutely spot on. The governments focus on revenue streams to meet its ill discipline spending impacts good policy. Service centered policy is over rided by focus on desperation to secure potential revenue streams at the cost of socio economic benefits
We cannot afford to protect 20th-century monopolies at the expense of 21st-century progress. PNG needs a policy that values connectivity over cost-recovery, and competition over protectionism.
Almost 2000 plus of online entrepreneurs working remotely need Starlink to survive to go from existing to thriving. We want to create more opportunities for our people to alleviate poverty, connect them to the global market but holding back due to unreliable broadband services..We can’t create employment and opportunities using mobile data that is unreliable and expensive.
PNG’s digital challenge is not about technology—it is about implementation.
Under the ICT Policy, MTDP IV, and the Digital Government agenda, connectivity is meant to enable service delivery, economic participation, and inclusive growth. Yet the lived reality for citizens tells a different story.
In urban centres, fibre exists but is unreliable, costly, and inconsistent. In rural PNG, fibre is largely absent, forcing communities and public institutions to depend on expensive satellite solutions. These choices are driven by necessity, not preference.
This reflects a policy-to-implementation gap. Infrastructure rollout has outpaced accountability for service quality, affordability, and last-mile access. Until connectivity is treated as critical national infrastructure—with strong regulation, targeted rural investment, and integration into health, education, and local government systems—digital transformation will remain aspirational.
Access must move from promise to performance.
#ICTPolicy #MTDPIV #DigitalGovernment #Connectivity #ServiceDelivery #DigitalInclusion #PNG
Can’t say anything more, all it said here. This government is killing own people and milking out million of kina. DataCo must Explain to the people of Papua New Guinea where that huge amount of money went missing without resourceful developments occurred.
DataCO is becoming cash Cow. we need competition, where consumers have Choices not to monopolize and higher charges are levied to Consumer
Ours is a constitutional democracy. The constitution gives certain rights to its citizens. Amongst others right to choose. The action by Dataco and Ombudsman Commission may breach some of those rights. Citizens agrieved may choose to litigate their rights in court. Danny Gonol Lawyers, a leading human rights law firm, stands ready to litigate this issue in court so long as reasonable costs are met.
Insightful information.
Should commercial aspect being the case, case in terms of OC halting Starlinks’ services in PNG, why not renegotiate to bring direct taxing from Starlink.
Competition is good and healthy for Low income thriving economy like PNG.
Worked in rural remote locations in the 4 regions. internet connection, access and consistency is too bad,. very poor. We need starlink in such contextual suitations
Core Guiding Principles for PNG Gov to consider:
1. Sovereignty First: The goal is not to block Starlink, but to ensure its entry benefits PNG’s national interests—connectivity, economic growth, and digital sovereignty—rather than merely extracting value.
2. Leverage for Leverage: Starlink brings capital and technology. PNG must leverage what it offers: legal market access and a customer base. These are its bargaining chips.
3. Regulate the Outcome, Not Just the Entry: Focus on shaping the market structure and enforcing rules that prevent long-term harm, rather than a binary “yes/no” to entry.
Starlink offers Mobility and Reliable Internet connectivity which Dataco and it’s fiber optic and existing telecom companies will never offer. SpaceX, Starlink’s parent company will soon introduce Voice and SMS from phones direct to satellite, again offering us reliable services on-the-move. Bring back Starlink !
This is an issue of national importance. Why has it not been raised in the national parliament?
What is written “Internet Access is not a luxury it is a critical utility”. The basic services like health and education need this service just the save as road access. We have patients that need to be medevac to big hospitals but due to delay in communication patients die, imagine a 7 year old boy who can be saved or a mother with pregnancy complications. They die because the health workers have to walk 1-2 days to find a spot that has digicel network coverage so that they can contact the PHAs to send a helicopter or small plane for medicav. The health worker walks back to the aidpost ans finds out that the patient died, but he was still traveling back by food and the medicav team that arrived ahead if him left without him knowing. It costs money for hire or fuel and it’s a waste if resources too. When sending health reports. Health workers will have to do the same, travel for hours or days to find at least one or two bars to send a message because to talk on the phone they’ll need better coverage. So I say we need interlink for this critical services to go on. Health and education in remote rural Papua new Guinea.
Mess created by Dataco must not hold PNG to ransom. Fix it and repay the China exim bank loan. Starlink services must be allowed to provide services here in the country.
Keep DataCo Alive: Force Starlink to operate as a “Wholesale Partner” rather than selling direct.
Protect Local Jobs: Require Starlink to use local PNG companies for all installations and support.
National Security: Require Starlink to build a “Ground Station” inside PNG so the data stays in-country.
Fair Competition: Tax Starlink at a higher rate and use that money to subsidize DataCo’s rural fiber.
Absolutely on point its funny how the government contradicts itself, saying we going to improve this and not allowing any improvements at all. 50 years on my fellow countrymen..mi sem lo mi yet