bemobile launches cheaper call rates

By BOSORINA ROBBY
TELCO company bemobile has just raised the bar in its own game to provide value on its products for its subscribers to enjoy.
Chief commercial Officer Alan Barry said yesterday that although the network was just beginning to make a mark in the market, it had already found favour with its subscribers.
“At bemobile, we are all about value,” he said.
“That’s why we are introducing our new off-net rates of 79 toea when calling from bemobile to Digicel, whereas it is K1.70 from Digicel to bemobile.”
Barry said this took effect from last night.
He said they were also introducing “super off-peak” rates of 10 toea per minute and free SMS from 11pm to 5.59am, Monday to Sunday for those subscribers who preferred to stay up late at night.
“We want to be the best in prices across the board and with our new low prices, we are,” he said.
He said the concern for bemobile was that its competitor Digicel did not publicise prices of its avarious services to give it a chance to compete.
“By doing so, they are preventing you from making a choice of which network you would want,” Barry said.
“And this is anti-competitive.
“If we know their prices, we can compete, they will reduce their prices and this will give people the freedom to choose.”
Barry added that bemobile would soon be rolling out more services to all parts of PNG beginning in the Highlands region and others by end of May, and looking at a rate of 20 sites per month until December.
He said this was made possible by a US$40 million (K83 million) loan from the Asian Development Bank which should help them get to places they had not been to.
“As part of our roll out phase, we’re becoming independent from Telikom PNG, though we still have a site share agreement with them,” Barry said.
“We’ve also bought our own satellite dishes, which should give the subscriber 3G connectivity to access their Facebook or other social networking sites.”
Barry called for more subscribers to join the bemobile network as it was largely owned by the Independent Public Business Corporation (IPBC) as a shareholder, meaning that all Papua New Guinean-owned bemobile.
“Everytime you use our products, you are putting money into the country that will further develop it,” he said.
“bemobile is your network and we are here to give you a better value as well as make a profit for the country.
“We’re the little fish in the big pond but we are getting there.”