In a move that will have an immediate impact on internet users in Papua New Guinea, Telikom PNG has cut the fees it charges wholesalers for its internet services by an average of 68%, effective this month.

Telikom PNG Chairman, Mahesh Patel

The average wholesale charge for a megabit of data will drop from 9t (US$0.04) per megabit to 3t (US$0.014).

‘This is only the start of it, we’re not going to stop there,’ Telikom’s Chairman Mahesh Patel told Business Advantage PNG. ‘The ultimate goal is make internet services in PNG internationally price competitive. The ball is now in the ISPs’ [internet service providers’] court to drop their prices.’

Patel flagged Telikom’s intention to publish its wholesale rates so that ISP margins were transparent.

Already, leading ISP Datec has announced that it will be doubling its customers’ data download allowances and reducing excess charges by just over 50%.

‘Telikom’s decision is very, very good news for the country,’ Trilochana Reddy, Chief Executive Officer of Datec (PNG) told Business Advantage PNG. ‘We are really excited.’

With Telikom’s wholesale charges representing only the average price over a 24-hour period, Reddy suggested that the move could see the development of internet services such as offshore data transfer and data centres that could take advantage of lower off-peak internet charges.

The extent of the cuts to wholesale charges have been made possible by improved internet infrastructure.

‘Prices should continue to go further down in the future,’ said Patel.