WAU WARIA SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH PNG DATACO

By BRADLEY MARIORI

THE Wau Waria District Development Authority has signed an agreement with PNG DataCo Limited to construct a second carrier‑neutral communications tower in the Waria Local Level Government area of Morobe Province.

Wau Waria MP Marsh Narewec said a separate managed services agreement will also be signed for the operation of the towers.

The new structure, a 30‑metre four‑legged Rapid Deployment System tower, will be built at Kamare village, about one kilometre from the Northern Highway, and designed for communal, multi‑operator use.

Coverage will extend to communities in Ward 6 (Gataipa), Ward 7 (Sim/Gerepo), Ward 8 (Wisi) and Ward 9 (Kasangare), including Kasangare Primary School.

Procurement and shipment are expected to take two months, with construction scheduled to begin in November 2026 and finish by February 2027.

“This is the second carrier-neutral tower under the Wau Waria DDA and PNG DataCo partnership. The first, at Kembaka village in the Biaru census division of Wau Rural Local Level Government, has been completed and is in service,” Narewec said.

He said experience gained from the construction of the Kembaka tower has reduced both the cost of construction and the turnaround time for the work.

Narewec said that to date only Vodafone had co-located at Kembaka.

“Kembaka was built as a neutral tower, available to all operators. To date only Vodafone has co-located there,” Hon. Narewec said.

“We call on Telikom and Digicel to also co-locate at Kembaka and at Kamare, in line with the National Government’s policy on tower sharing.”

Narewec said the district had considered the alternatives available to rural communities.

“Starlink is unaffordable for rural communities, and fibre optic cable is not feasible in the geographically challenging terrain of remote districts such as Wau Waria,” he said.

Hon. Narewec, who chairs the Special Parliamentary Committee on Communications, said he supported discussions currently under way on mobile operators transferring the management of their towers to a separate company.

“There are discussions under way for mobile operators to off load their tower management to a separate company. I support that,” he said.

“I would encourage operators to go further and enter into partnership with District Development Authorities and Provincial Governments to build and manage towers, as Wau Waria DDA and PNG DataCo are doing.”

Hon. Narewec said the cost to operators of building and running their own tower networks was a factor in the price consumers pay for internet services.

“The wholesale cost of internet has come down. The retail cost remains high, in part because each operator carries the cost of operating its own towers,” he said.

“Co-sharing will, in the long term, reduce the retail cost of internet.”

The next phase for the Kamare site includes a detailed radio frequency survey, geotechnical inspection and backhaul path study, with mobile network operators and other stakeholders to be involved. An access track will be constructed from the
Northern Highway to the tower site.