A new mobile network operator (MNO) has entered Papua New Guinea, doing so under the Vodafone banner. Local press outlet The Post Courier reports that Digitec Communications – part of the Digitec Group, in which Fiji-based Amalgamated Telecom Holdings (ATH) holds a 70% stake – is expected to be offering mobile services under the Vodafone banner in a total of 25 locations across the country by 21 April.
The announcement of the new player’s launch came at the opening of Digitec’s new head office in Port Moresby, with communications minister Timothy Masiu in attendance at this event. Commenting on the development, the minister was cited as saying: ‘On behalf of the Marape government, I welcome your entry into the PNG market … It is the government’s policy objective to promote sustainable competition in the [ICT] sector and to ensure affordability, accessibility, connectivity and we believe [Digitec’s] entry into the market as the third mobile telecommunication operator will rejuvenate competition in the market.’
As noted in TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, the Vodafone brand had previously been used by one of PNG’s established cellcos, bmobile. It did so under a Partner Market agreement with the UK-based telecoms giant, but in May 2019 the cooperation agreement between the companies came to an end, with use of the Vodafone brand name discontinued by bmobile from that date.