BY BARNABAS MANEBONA
Telecommunication is a problem currently at Northeast Choiseul.
A call is made by the people of Katario Ward at Northeast Choiseul for the improvement of network service in their district as communication is very important.
From a distance, the only network tower that serviced them was the Telekom network tower at Ogho, Northwest Choiseul.
Since the Telekom Tower at Northwest Choiseul was switched off last December, communication has been a major problem for the people of Katario Ward.
To this date, the people of Katario have to travel two to three hours by 40-Horse powered Outboard Motors (OBMs) to their provincial capital at Taro Station to communicate.
Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) for Katario Ward 13, Hon Ronald Zakele speaking on behalf of his people said they have already applied to Telekom Company last year 2021, but are still waiting for response.
“Land is available, free of any dispute as there are ownership documents. We only call for a network service provider to come set up at our area, for communication to improve,” said Zakele.
“I call on the national government and leaders to look into our concern of putting up a tower because communication and sharing information is very important especially through such times of Coronavirus (Covid-19) as well.
“Continuously travelling instead to Taro station for communication purposes is very costly.
“Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic and community outbreak was reported, Choiseul is one of the provinces that are far behind with regards COVID updates because of the poor communication facilities. Communication in other provinces continues to flow while this is not the case for us.
“We have applied to Telekom Company last year 2021 since it is the network service mainly used in Choiseul, but since then there has been no response up until now.”
The MPA assured that he will check back with the ‘Telekom Company’ over their application for a telephone network tower to be set up in their area.
