The people of Western province can expect increase in mobile coverage made possible through a recent renewal of agreement between the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Sustainable Development Goal (SDP) and Digicel. The two organizations announced recently the renewal and enhancement of its Managed Services Agreement with Digicel for another 3 years, which follows an initial 14-year investment supporting telecommunication reach across Western Province. Under the renewed agreement, SDP and Digicel will introduce Supercell technology to optimize coverage across 19 blackspot areas and make redundant 6 out of SDP’s 70 mobile towers, thus reducing operational cost. Further to this renewal, SDP is currently upgrading its mobile towers with hybrid renewable energy to reduce cost and reliance on diesel and accommodate colocation. Access to Telecommunications and Internet remains a priority program for SDP under its Enabling Services Pillar, in support of the Western Province Integrated Development Plan. “Western Province is a developing market, and the uptake of mobile phones is lower compared to the PNG average. This requires targeted investment into developing the market through access to affordable phones, content and digital literacy in general. The next step for SDP is to utilize its Health, Education and Livelihood investments as a catalyst for developing the ecosystem,” said the Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Lesieli Taviri.