Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Photo: Drew Douglas, Flickr.

SpeedCast International has opened an office in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, to support the company’s growing customer base in the energy and enterprise markets. The company has been operating in the country for more than 10 years with an international gateway and self-sufficient standalone teleport, but this is its first office facility in the country. The team includes 10 employees who focus on operations, engineering, sales and local support.

SpeedCast has built a presence in Papua New Guinea through the installation of communication infrastructure and a number of acquisitions, including Pactel International in 2013 and Oceanic Broadband in 2014. SpeedCast installed one of the first licensed international gateways since the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) bill was introduced in 2009, which deregulated mobile telephony including international calling and retail price-setting. In 2015, SpeedCast installed two O3b terminals in Port Moresby and Lae, as well as wireless networks to provide low latency, fiber-speed connectivity to businesses in these two capitals.

According to SpeedCast, the company has made major strides in Papua New Guinea’s oil and gas market by working with companies such as InterOil (now owned by ExxonMobil). SpeedCast supported the construction phase of InterOil Papua New Guinea Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), a $19 billion project with the goal of efficiently and cost effectively commercializing the gas resources in the country. SpeedCast provided both primary satellite links and worker construction camps connectivity, supporting up to 3,000 individuals. In 2014, through its support of InterOil, SpeedCast received the Papua New Guinea LNG communications project, which relied on SpeedCast’s countrywide Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) networks to provide connectivity to 26 remote drilling sites that were only accessible via helicopter. The company installed communications equipment and solutions to enable end-to-end communications for on-the-ground teams.

In addition, SpeedCast supports the second largest mobile carrier in the country, bmobile-Vodafone — installing satellite links to support telephony to the core network in Port Moresby. SpeedCast also provides internet and voice services for the Manus Island Offshore Processing Centre.