Cable Network

Cable network to ease communication challenges

March 20, 2020     Sourced from The National Business, with thanks.

Workers working on landing the marine fiber cable on Manus Island

COMMUNICATION challenges for the people of Manus will be a thing of the past as the province witnessed the arrival of the fiber optic cable yesterday.
PNG Dataco managing director engineering Tony Morisause said the current connectivity in Manus through satellite technology was limited by transmission capacity and susceptible to weather conditions such as heavy cloud cover.
“While the current technology is serving its purpose, it cannot adequately support the current bandwidth needs and is unable to cater for the future growth requirements,” he said.
“As the country is evolving, in telecommunication infrastructure, it must keep in pace with trends in the world.
“It is vital for our country to adapt to newer technologies that will meet the current and future requirements that are predominantly IT based.
“Therefore the Kumul submarine cable network (KSCN) is the platform to support the future IT requirements.”
Manus governor Charlie Benjamin thanked the Government, PNG Dataco and its partners for successfully landing the KSCN in Manus.
The landing was witnessed by few onlookers with the province playing down any official ceremony celebrating the cable landing.
PNG Dataco had called off public gatherings due to the ramping up of the preparedness of containing the coronavirus.
“Manus is privileged to have the cable brought to our shores,” Benjamin said.
“We are now in the digital age and it is important to have this infrastructure in the province so that we can be able to use it and move any development forward.”
Benjamin said the provincial government was optimistic about bigger economic developments and benefits in the future after witnessing the cable landing.
“With the cable now in the province, we can now talk about bigger developments and the benefits they bring to the province,” he said.