A research undertaken by the Australian National University (ANU) on the establishment of undersea internet cables or submarine cables in the Pacific has shown that internet prices in PNG have not dropped despite numerous promising announcements by government heads.
In a session with local media representatives yesterday, Research Fellow with the Department of Pacific Affairs at ANU, Dr Amanda Watson explained about submarine cables in the Pacific and made mention of the areas concerning cybersecurity, geopolitics and reliability.
In recent years, PNG has seen a couple of undersea internet cables established with grand announcements of reduced internet rates and faster internet speed.
“The recent submarine cable establishment was the Coral Sea Cable System in 2019 from Sydney, Australia to PNG and Solomon Islands,” Dr Watson said.
“The research carried out shows that since then the internet rates in PNG have remained the same.”
Dr Watson said while increasing submarine cable connection is important, issues of cybersecurity, geopolitics and reliability also affects its’ purpose and this needs to be looked at by the government to properly regulate internet services.