Competition important to offer customers a choice

 By GEDION TIMOTHY LAPAN

COMPETITION in the telecommunication industry is important for increased penetration, coverage and efficiency, bmobile-Vodafone Group chief executive officer Sundar Ramamurthy says.

He said competition was good for customers because it gave them the freedom to choose from the best available company for efficient and effective services at an affordable price.

Ramamurthy was speaking at a media conference by Nasfund and bmobile-Vodafone where the two companies announced a marketing promotion that would see Superfund members given free bmobile-Vodafone SIM cards and a 33 per cent discounted smart phone. “The issue of penetration boils down to introducing competition. It is the only way that you have to create efficiency whether it’s in telecommunications, if we do have competition we only service areas that are most profitable,” he said.

“We (bmobile-Vodafone) have now rolled across, pretty much every town is covered. With Highlands now complete, our next course of action is to of course improving areas in East and West New Britain, Bougainville.

“We have covered Manus, Alotau. We are in Vanimo and are increasing penetration and you do that by creating a competitive environment so Papua New Guineans can get the best prices,” Ramamurthy said. He said increased penetration was one of the pertinent issues that the company was addressing stakeholders.

“For us, we have become a viable alternative for Papua New Guineans so that we generate competition and coverage … that should increase efficiency and that is really the bottom line.”