_{From the left: Special Parliamentary Committee on Communications Chairman and Wau Waria MP, Hon Marsh Narewec beside his DDA CEO, John Orebut shaking hands with the PNG DataCo Ltd CEO, Paul Komboi with the DataCo Senior Manager Projects Office, Elvis Wiri.}

Under the visionary chairmanship of Destiny Party Leader and Wau Waria MP, Hon Marsh Narewec and Chief Executive Officer, John Orebut, the Wau Waria District Development Authority (WWDDA) has achieved another major milestone within a single five-year term, securing its second carrier-neutral communications tower to push mobile connectivity further into the district’s remote communities.

Hon Narewec and Mr Orebut were in Port Moresby last Friday, the 4th of September to officially sign the agreement with PNG DataCo Limited for the construction of the tower at Kamare village in the Waria LLG.

For Wau Waria, where rugged mountains, scattered communities and difficult terrain continue to challenge basic service delivery, the DDA maintains that communication is a vital service that must be pushed as far as possible into the rural population, the shared-tower approach being pursued by Wau Waria DDA and PNG DataCo could provide a practical model for other remote districts.

The Kamare tower will extend coverage towards Ward 6 Gataipa, Ward 7 Sim/Gerepo, Ward 8 Wisi and Ward 9 Kasangare, including Kasangare Primary School. It follows the successful completion of the district’s first carrier-neutral tower at Kembaka village in the Biaru area of Wau Rural LLG already in operation.

However, Vodafone is currently the only mobile network operator to have co-located at Kembaka, despite the tower purposely being developed as a shared infrastructure available to all operators.

As the Chairman of the Special Parliamentary Committee on Communications, Hon Narewec in that capacity has called on the Telikom and Digicel mobile companies to join Vodafone by co-locating on the Kembaka tower and eventually, the new Kamare tower, in line with the National Government’s policy on tower sharing.

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

This call comes after the Wau Waria DDA and PNG DataCo already taking the critical step of putting shared infrastructure on the ground. With the towers being provided, Hon Narewec’s plea is for the mobile operators to utilise that infrastructure and take their services further into communities where reliable communication is crucial but remains unavailable.

For the people, having multiple operators on the same towers will mean greater choice and accessibility, while allowing network providers to expand coverage without each having to build separate infrastructure across Wau Waria’s difficult terrain.

Hon Narewec said options such as Starlink remain unaffordable for many rural communities, while extending fibre-optic cable through Wau Waria’s challenging geography is not feasible in many locations.

“I am encouraging the operators to go further and enter into partnership with the District Development Authorities and Provincial Governments to build and manage towers, as the Wau Waria DDA and PNG DataCo are doing. s
Sharing infrastructure could also contribute towards lowering the cost of internet services,” he said.

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

The Kamare facility will be a 30-metre, four-legged Rapid Deployment System tower designed for communal, multi-operator use, with procurement and shipment expected to take two months.

Construction is expected to begin around November 2026 and conclude in February 2027, following a detailed radio-frequency survey, geotechnical inspection and backhaul-path study. An access track will also be constructed from the Northern Highway to the tower site.

With Kembaka already operational and Kamare now secured, Wau Waria DDA has done its part in putting the infrastructure in place. The call is now for the mobile operators to come on board, share that infrastructure and ensure communication reaches the remote people it was built to serve.