Kautu told Business Advantage PNG this week that government spending in upgrading the country's telecommunication infrastructure would allow greater competition between retailers, who would then pass on the benefits to businesses and ordinary people.

"The underlying objective of the government is to push competition across the retail telecommunications sector by upgrading, building, owning and operating the National Transmission Network and making it available to ICT operators at the wholesale level only," he said.

"This will eventually provide an effective wholesale infrastructure that is reliable and cost-effective for the people of PNG. Telecommunications prices are set to reduce substantially once all these changes are in place."