Digicel losing its edge
Digicel is slowly but surely losing its edge compared with the time it introduced competition in the telecommunication industry in PNG.
I could actually call my folks in the village from abroad (Malaysia) and the charges were cheap. It used to cost about K2.50 per minute and I could talk for four minutes for K10. It was enough to get the important messages across.
Now, I am finding it increasingly frustrating with Digicel on several fronts.
Firstly, the rates have gone up, it now cost between K5 and K7 per minute.
Secondly, 90% of the time I end up getting voice mail, which drains K3 unnecessarily. It is free with B Mobile.
Thirdly, in the past few weeks I was unable to reach any of my folks using Digicel in Rabaul. It was never like this initially. I only started facing this when the issue of interconnectivity surfaced.
Fourthly, it’s rather bizarre that I cannot send text massages to more than one Digicel user in PNG. It seems I cannot text anyone other than the first person who had received the SMS.
I am not sure if others in other parts of the world are experiencing this problem.
I hope someone in Digicel can shed some light on these issues.
In the meantime, I have happily reverted back to using Telikom’s landline.

Francis Kalukal, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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