PNGBLOGS

The entry of a new player and an increasingly assertive stance on consumer rights protection by Papua New Guinea’s (PNG’s) telecommunications regulator bode well for competition in the sector. However, a continually evolving playing field and objections to new policies from telecoms operators may create considerable challenges for the regulatory body as it attempts to improve pricing and services. On January 28 the National Information Communication Technology Authority (NICTA) ordered state-owned Telikom PNG to cease the sales of its range of ZTE handsets until the firm complied with the regulator’s approval process. Local newspaper the Post Courier reported that Charles Punaha, CEO of NICTA, had informed Telikom that certain ZTE smartphone models were yet to be approved. This move followed attempts by NICTA in November 2012 to push Telikom toward making the country’s principal fibre-optic connection available to all internet service providers for direct sale as broadband products, a

The entry of a new player and an increasingly assertive stance on consumer rights protection by Papua New Guinea’s (PNG’s) telecommunications regulator bode well for competition in the sector. However, a continually evolving playing field and objections to new policies from telecoms operators may create considerable challenges for the regulatory body as it attempts to improve pricing and services. On January 28 the National Information Communication Technology Authority (NICTA) ordered state-owned Telikom PNG to cease the sales of its range of ZTE handsets until the firm complied with the regulator’s approval process. Local newspaper the Post Courier reported that Charles Punaha, CEO of NICTA, had informed Telikom that certain ZTE smartphone models were yet to be approved. This move followed attempts by NICTA in November 2012 to push Telikom toward making the country’s principal fibre-optic connection available to all internet service providers for direct sale as broadband products,

By CONCERNED UNITECH STUDENT After I read the essay that Unitech SRC president Mr Livingston Hosea put on this blog recently I knew I must write another side to this story.  Mr Hosea writes about the many government  actions or inactions that have caused the crisis we now have at Unitech and how it led to our effective VC being deported to Australia.  All that seems to be true and accurate. In his essay Mr Hosea also explains his strategy for bringing back the  VC. He bends over backwards almost touching the ground to assure everyone that we students will not be protesting.  I guess that means we students were only thinking about the Unitech crisis but not doing anything. Or maybe we were thinking a little, while going to class and studying. Maybe also eating, playing sports, sleeping, going to town and talking with friends. That kind of relaxed attitude could not train us students to focus on the issue of Schram mistreatment.  It does not put our concentration into giving our very bes

By CONCERNED UNITECH STUDENT After I read the essay that Unitech SRC president Mr Livingston Hosea put on this blog recently I knew I must write another side to this story.  Mr Hosea writes about the many government  actions or inactions that have caused the crisis we now have at Unitech and how it led to our effective VC being deported to Australia.  All that seems to be true and accurate. In his essay Mr Hosea also explains his strategy for bringing back the  VC. He bends over backwards almost touching the ground to assure everyone that we students will not be protesting.  I guess that means we students were only thinking about the Unitech crisis but not doing anything. Or maybe we were thinking a little, while going to class and studying. Maybe also eating, playing sports, sleeping, going to town and talking with friends. That kind of relaxed attitude could not train us students to focus on the issue of Schram mistreatment.  It does not put our concentration into giving our very b

By Concern Educator “UNITECH Saga 2013” as students now call it, has been labelled a fight between good versus evil.    It’s also turning out to be a public test of whether Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has any real power to control rogue elements that exist within today’s PNG educated elite.  There are disturbing signs that O’Neill finds himself powerless against these elements as they manipulate the system to cover up wrongdoings and screw their opponents, while screaming ‘defamation’ whenever they hear any allegation of impropriety.     All this is happening right now in UNITECH Saga 2013 where such rogue creatures look determined to destroy the best opportunity UNITECH has had in more than a generation to experience true reform and progress.     Perhaps our Prime Minister was blinded to this growing picture by what seemed to be an initial focus on counteracting a once unspeakable blasphemy:   Papua New Guineans publicly demanding that a European be their boss over ANY alternative na

By Concern Educator “UNITECH Saga 2013” as students now call it, has been labelled a fight between good versus evil.    It’s also turning out to be a public test of whether Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has any real power to control rogue elements that exist within today’s PNG educated elite.  There are disturbing signs that O’Neill finds himself powerless against these elements as they manipulate the system to cover up wrongdoings and screw their opponents, while screaming ‘defamation’ whenever they hear any allegation of impropriety.     All this is happening right now in UNITECH Saga 2013 where such rogue creatures look determined to destroy the best opportunity UNITECH has had in more than a generation to experience true reform and progress.     Perhaps our Prime Minister was blinded to this growing picture by what seemed to be an initial focus on counteracting a once unspeakable blasphemy:   Papua New Guineans publicly demanding that a European be their boss over ANY al

Melanesian support for a free West Papua has always been high. Travel throughout Papua New Guinea and you will often hear people say that West Papua and Papua New Guinea is ‘wanpela graun’ – one land – and that West Papuans on the other side of the border are family and kin. In the Solomon Islands, Kanaky, Fiji and especially Vanuatu, people will tell you that “Melanesia is not free until West Papua is free”. This was the promise that the late Father Walter Lini, Vanuatu’s first prime minister made. Ordinary people in this part of the Pacific are painfully aware that the West Papuan people continue to live under the gun. It is the politicians in Melanesia who have been slow to take up the cause. But that may be changing. Earlier this month, Powes Parkop, Governor of the Papua New Guinea’s National Capital District, nailed his colours firmly to the mast. In front of a crowd of 3000 people, Governor Parkop insisted that “there is no historical, legal, religious, or moral justification fo