TELIKOM PNG Ltd has invested about K53 million in a microwave transport system to support its rollout of the national broadband network (NBN).
The project would be carried out by Aviat Networks Inc (Aviat).
Telikom board chairman Mahesh Patel said this was part of NBN project announced recently on rolling out of major networks across the country.
“This is part of it and one of the bigger ones.
“This may be the single longest link in the world actually, going for 143km, going straight back route from Port Moresby to Mt Hagen.”
The project would create a Telikom highway between Port Moresby and Lae.
At present, there was fibre optics between Lae and Madang.
This project would link Madang, Goroka and Hagen and back route to Port Moresby.
Patel said there were three phases to this project.
The first would be completed by the end of June, the second in September and the last in late November.
As a result, Telikom would now have a microwave link between Port Moresby, Lae, Madang, Goroka, Hagen and the back route, giving Telikom the network capacity and redundancy.
“The idea is to provide the fixed broadband right across the country and this will give us redundancy, much stronger singles and better service to the customers.
“That’s what the ultimate goal is,” Patel said.
He said the new scheme would be faster and more reliable and connecting right across the country in the near future.
“We will start getting benefits out of that in the near future, Patel said.
Aviat president and chief executive Michael Pangia said this was a significant project for the company.
Aviat would supply its WTM 6000 microwave trunking platform for the project.
“We’ve been dealing with using our latest technology called WTM 6000, which is our trunking platform,” Pangia said.
Designed for ultra-reliable, ultra-highly capacity applications, the Aviat WTM 6000 would provide long microwave communication links over distances in toughest conditions.
