Tarik Boudiaf became CEO of Digicel PNG in July 2024, crossing over from an executive position within the African market. In this exclusive interview with Business Advantage PNG, he shares how Digicel plans to serve business customers, and his thoughts on Papua New Guinea’s regulatory environment and potential competition from Starlink.

Digicel PNG CEO Tarik Boudiaf. Credit: Digicel PNG

Digicel PNG has made substantial investments since its acquisition by Australian telecommunications giant Telstra in 2022. This has included the construction of 115 new mobile towers and upgrade of 96 additional towers to 4G LTE, resulting in a network covering more than 80 per cent of Papua New Guinea’s population.

In July 2024, the company appointed Tarik Boudiaf, formerly an executive at a leading African mobile operator, as its new chief executive. He recently sat down for his first interview with Business Advantage PNG.

BAPNG: How has Digicel PNG performed in the past year?

TB: We have seen positive growth year-on-year, mainly driven by the new sites we deployed. Pricing is helping to increase penetration. We have approached the market with a segmented approach, providing more opportunities to access our services in different areas of PNG.

The new entrant to the market [Vodafone] has stimulated competition, [but] in general, the telco industry is not moving at the level expected. We have dependencies mainly on connectivity, which is related to the availability of power and data coverage. Unfortunately, we have also had challenges related to security in some areas. But we remain optimistic. We need to look at doing business in different ways to adapt to change.

Our market penetration rate is at around 30 to 35 per cent, so we still have room to improve our coverage, quality of service and pricing as well.

BAPNG: How are you servicing business customers in PNG?

TB: The most basic need [for business customers] is connectivity. When it comes to more sophisticated needs, we have a specialised team dedicated to understanding the IT environment and telecom environment for each customer.

We have these capabilities and the expertise to customise our offers based on each customer and different industries.

We provide some added-value services as well: for example, in cyber security and cloud services, where we are providing technologies that can help companies here in PNG and in other markets.

We’ve been talking about 5G: it can bring added value, mainly for professionals. I have launched 5G into different markets, and you can see that the penetration is increasing in Africa. It’s not a game changer in our experience. However, it can bring more value to our enterprise ecosystem.

BAPNG: What has been your impression of PNG’s regulatory environment?

TB: Here, the regulator is mainly based on a consultative approach, which is very good compared to some others which take a mandatory approach.

However, it comes down to [striking] the right balance. Supporting new entrants into the market is good. But you need to find the right balance in also supporting the existing players who have invested heavily in this country, and who have promoted and developed telecommunications in PNG.

I would say that, overall, we have a very good relationship with the regulator and they have a very clear roadmap.

BAPNG: How does Digicel view Starlink’s possible entry into the market?

TB: It is a potential disrupter because their business model is completely different. They’re dealing directly with end users. There is no distribution channel, no maintenance service. In the short term, that might have an impact in our business, and that’s something that we are addressing.

In Australia, our parent company Telstra is distributing the Starlink product. We are exploring different options to see how to be part of this journey. However, in the long term, it is up to the [PNG] government and regulator to look at it.

BAPNG: Which technological advancements most excite you in the industry?

TB: Mobile financial services have been one of the biggest innovations in the last ten years in Africa and more recently in India.

It’s something that governments and regulators need to look at, because it goes beyond the service itself. It’s an ecosystem that develops financial inclusion and that improves drastically the economy for each country. We have seen many examples of this in Africa.

Digicel’s Tarik Boudiaf will be speaking at the Innovation PNG 2025 Conference and Expo, to be held March 27-28 at the Stanley Hotel, Port Moresby. You can register to attend the event, and find out more information about it, here.