PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (PNG Post-Courier, April 16, 2008) – The far flung island community of Wuvulu has become the latest to link up with the world of global communications, through Telikom PNG’s Gilat Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT).

A new terminal on the island, 120 nautical miles north of Wewak, was switched on by Telikom engineers, and handed over to the community last Thursday, as part of a program initiated by Manus Open Member Job Pomat.

Since then, hundreds of calls have been made to and from the previously isolated island, as mothers, dads and teenagers lined up to place calls to relatives and friends all over PNG, and beyond.

School-aged children looked forward with great anticipation to accessing the world of information available through the VSAT Internet channel.

"It’s like coming out of the darkness into the light," local councilor Saroa Bai told Telikom engineers and officials, and a crowd gathered on the neat lawns of the health centre at Wuvulu.

Sister in charge of the health centre Antonia Ndrakara said there had been no reliable communication for emergency or routine medical and health matters for some time, for the 1,200 residents on Wuvulu and nearby Auwa.

"Now I pick up a normal phone, like many other clinics in PNG, and get straight through to Moresby, Wewak or Vanimo, for health co-ordination, medicine and evacuation emergencies," Ndrakara said. "We are a long way from help in an emergency, seven hours by boat in good weather to Vanimo hospital. This new telephone and Internet service is the best thing ever to happen to the health services for Wuvulu people,’’ Sister Ndrakara said.

Telikom acting CEO Peter Loko said Telikom had a clear policy of helping under-resourced or isolated communities. Not only were the phone calls free for a start, the entire installation, costing several hundred thousand kina, was provided free to the community under Telikom’s community service program.

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