Craze Goes Red Hot For Mobile Phones

The current economic problems in Papua New Guinea have no impact on the emergence of a growing obsession in the country‹the craze for mobile telephones.

Every working class individual wants a mobile phone. Many have already owned one, others struggle to buy theirs, while many more crave for one.

People have gone out of their own way to acquire mobile phones in response to an ongoing marketing campaign that dominated the media in recent months.

The sudden upsurge in the demand for mobile phones have encouraged dealers to come up with purchasing arrangements to attract customers. One dealer has introduced a pay deduction scheme for those who really want one.

Companies involved in the business of communication use the obsession to their advantage. One company has bought all its staff mobile phones with deductions made to their pay packets to recover the cost.

This follows the introduction of affordable GSM (Global System Mobile) service in May this year. Pacific Mobile Communications, the company responsible for this, says Digital GSM brings Papua New Guinea in line with majority of the countries within the region who have GSM mobile networks. The benefits include fast connection, competitive pricing, customer service centre and is available in all major centres.

The company said the GSM B-Mile service replaces the existing Cellnet AMP network. At the time of the launch, the GSM coverage area included Port Moresby, Lae, Mt Hagen, Goroka and Madang.

The mobile comes with a start-up kit and an SIM Card (subscriber identity module). The SIM Card is required to enable the handset to work. It is similar to SMART cards used in various commercial world. The SIM card provides security, containing all the necessary information/processes to validate each and every individual mobile user to the GSM cellular network.

Other features include a pre-paid B-Mobile, designed specifically for the less frequent or domestic user, where the majority of calls are made outside business hours.

This service offers discounted calls after hours, special offers from time to time, top-up through B-Mobile pre-paid cards which are available at Pacific Mobile Communications (PMC) offices and its approved dealers.

The pre-paid B Mobile also has a voicemail. This has been provided at no monthly charge. However, users will be charged for access. When the phone is busy, out of range, switched off, or the phone rings and is not answered, the incoming calls will be diverted to the user¹s personal voicemail service, where a message can be left. The user can personalise his or her greeting on the voicemail to make it clear to callers that have called his/her phone.

There is also an SMS text messaging service which has been provided at no additional monthly charge, however a usage charge is applicable.

This service provides text messaging between GSM handsets, voicemail notification, information of services from the PMC offices, and information services as introduced by PMC. Any GSM compatible handset will work on the B-Mobile network.