Denis O'Brien made a flying visit to Papua New Guinea last weekend in bid to assuage fears that Digicel's recent arrival into the telecoms market would result in the collapse of state-owned Telikom.

Two senior government ministers have been campaigning to have Digicel's licence revoked along with that of GreenCom, an Indonesian company that plans to launch a mobile operation there later this month.

Telikom and Pangtel, the local regulator, have also urged the government to act, claiming that the state-owned company could go bust in the face of international competition.

The award of Digicel's licence is before a local court and the dispute between the government and the company has been running all year. Digicel has also been accused of operating without permission on frequencies that have been set aside for GreenCom. This claim has been vigorously denied by Digicel.

It paid $17 million (€12 million) for its licence and began services in July. It says it has slashed phone charges by up to 48 per cent and has invested $150 million in the project.

O'Brien had previously stayed silent on the dispute but flew into Port Moresby on a private jet to meet the acting prime minister and the finance minister.

He told local media that the two ministers assured him that Digicel's licence was safe.

He also told them that any move by the government to revoke the company's licence would ruin the country's international reputation and said claims that Digicel's arrival to the market threatened Telikom's existence was nothing more than "scaremongering".

O'Brien said the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is aligned with the World Bank, was concerned about the dispute. The IFC is one of Digicel's syndicate bankers.

Digicel has an application before the IFC for $100 million to continue its rollout of services in Papua New Guinea. It's a high-stakes game of poker and one that O'Brien seems determined to win.