Telecommunications’ discount rivalry benefits clients

CELLPHONE users have been treated to some big discounts over the Christmas season including un-timed calls anywhere in the country.
This was made possible by the price competition being waged by the two cellphone service providers B Mobile and Digicel.
Independent market research by PNG Data Services had shown that during the day on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, mobile users were getting calls under 10 minutes duration for a flat rate of only 44 toea per call.
After 7pm, B Mobile calls within PNG were being charged at a flat rate of K1.76 per call under 10 minutes.
These low rates were not advertised, and they represented very big discounts on B Mobile’s standard call rates of K1.76 per minute during the day time and K1.32 at night, plus 44 toea connection fee.
National calls on the Digicel network were charged at 99 toea per minute on Christmas Eve, reducing to 50 toea per minute after 7pm. On Christmas Day, digicel calls were discounted to 25 toea per minute.
All overseas Digicel calls to selected countries were confirmed by the research as being charged at the special promotional rate of 99 toea per minute, both day and night. Digicel did not charge connection fees.
PNG Data Services director Aaron Hayes said there had been a lot of Christmas and New Year promotions advertised by the rival mobile phone networks and it was important for consumers to get independent confirmation that the special rates were actually being applied as advertised.
“Our test calls over Christmas also confirmed that B Mobile was charging a discount rate of 99 toea per minute for band one international calls after 7 pm, as advertised and 20 toea for local SMS,” he said.
The big disappointment for the B Mobile users was the over-crowded network which made it difficult to get a line out most of the time.
“Despite Telikom’s announcement of equipment upgrades, it was obvious to us while making our test calls that the B Mobile network was unable to cope with demand during the peak period,” he said.
The other problem reported by the B Mobile users was the high number of prepaid cards that had been rejected for recharge and that they were belived to be fakes or had been tampered with and resold.
B Mobile customer service line confirmed that many customers had complained that they had purchased brand-new prepaid cards which were said by the computer system to be already used and cancelled.
The research found that Digicel’s claim to connect first time, every time was “largely correct” and almost all test calls on the Digicel network, including overseas, went through the first time the number was dialled.