Businesses to enjoy better link

 BUSINESS activities in and around the industrial hub of Lae have long been affected with telecommunication woes and bmobile-Vodafone improved services will greatly assist businesses activities.

Lae Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Alan McLay said that when welcoming the improved services, network coverage and competitive edge provided by bmobile-Vodafone during a joint luncheon yesterday.

Bmobile-Vodafone chief executive officer Sundar Ramamurthy told the business community that the company, under its new partnership with Vodafone, was now an improved coverage, services and cheaper network.

McLay said PNG lagged behind in terms of better and cheaper telecommunication rates because of the different tariffs imposed.

However, he said if there was more competition, more businesses would welcome it.

“Lae is PNG’s industrial capital, not the political capital, and is the main driving force of the economy of PNG, all companies are reliant on telecommunications, especially the internet and mobile phones,” he said.

“That has certainly streamlined a lot of businesses in the way they operate.”

“The bread basket of PNG stretches from Madang, Lae, Kainantu, Goroka to Hagen so for us (bmobile-Vodafone) it’s very important that we give excellent coverage and excellent customer service across that area, that has been the focus from us apart from Port Moresby,” Ramamurthy said.

“We need to cover the highlands corridor very well and we’ve just completed that and we are looking forward now to embarking with businesses in Lae hence the meeting with the industry today and to get the message out there that we are a credible alternative and for the people to use us and judge us,” he said.

“If we are not up to the standards, tell us so we can fix it, but we are a very good network and coverage today and we need people to try it as opposed to thinking ‘should I or shouldn’t I.”