www.lifhaus.com.sb

http://www.lifhaus.com.sb/content/digicel-may-not-enter-solomons-after-all

Its in the papers...

Does anyone have more information on this company. Only info i got was from wikipedia that said
that it was branded from cable and wireless, isnt that the same mob that are partners with Telekom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMobile

BeMobile is a subsidiary of Telikom PNG, a local PNG company like Solomon Telekom.
Before Digicel PNG entered the PNG telecoms market PNG market was a monopoly similar to one we have under Solomon Telekom. Telikom PNG provide both landline service and mobile service plus. When Digicel entered PNG, Telikom PNG created what was known as B-Mobile to concentrate on mobile service as counter to Digicel. B-Mobile was later rebranded as BeMobile with new shareholders.

BeMobile is majority owned by PNG locals through their superannuation funds. BeMobile also has two other overseas shareholders.

In comparision, Solomon Telekom is also majority owned by Solomon Island workers through the NPF shares in Telekom. Recently Solomon Telekom rebranded itself as Our Telekom. It however still operates as one company offering landline, mobile, Internet and all other comms services. Our Telekom has a overseas minority shareholder in Cable & Wireless. Its other smaller shareholder is ICSI; the commercial arm of SIG.

That's some basic background. Now what made this an interesting issue is the fact that everyone assumed that Digicel will be the next new mobile competitor. Digicel itself wasnt hiding this fact, with an office in Honiara and employees doing groundwork, all this even before a new Telco bill was passed to open up the market or before any new telco license was issued. Digicel was so sure of itself that it will be in the Solomon Islands. Judging from their walk through the pacific, in Fiji, Samoa, PNG, Vanuatu they have no doubts that Solomons tender process was just a formality and they were just waiting to be confirmed. Well that is now history as we know that the evaluation committee has announced that Digicel is out, BeMobile of PNG is in! I am sure this will create some attention at the Digicel Pacific headquarters. They are not used to losing and they will fight it out even though it looks like all is confirmed for BeMobile.

Ok i have been calling friends around Honiara govnt offices what happened to the bid esp to Digicel's loss. Most of them dont know the story behind the scene however one of my contacts mentioned that a group of Digicel executives flew into the country last week on their private jet and they had an audience with the people in govnt, most likely the Minister. Unconfirmed stories revealed that Digicel was demanding certain conditions that are not quite acceptable to the governemnt. One thing mentioned was that Digicel didnt want to pay Tax or were asking for a Tax excemption of some sort on maybe duty, GST or maybe even excempt from paying license fee.

Maybe Digicel's fate in the tender process has some bearing to their demanding approach. Maybe they appeared too aggressive and arrogant. And it sounds like Digicel. They are sleek, aggressive and modern in the sense that they may be used to getting their ways through third world bureacracy. Somehow it didnt work in the Solomons and their approach backfired on them.

We will see. In the meantime congratulation to BeMobile of Papua New Guinea. U pla kam na wokim and show Solomons that you are better than reknown Digicel.

Thanxs MeetDaFamily for enlightens us on the current outcome of the Mobile service provider in the SI. Based on ur analysis, it showed Bemobile after renamed from defunct Beemobile (a division of png Telikom) is learning quite fast from Digicel explosion in the region, and couple with its superpower consortiums.

My only fear would be this is more like resembles Our Telekom and there could be some concerns about its competitiveness rather than its national monopoly type of attitude and approach.

so one would say from what is unfolding we the pipol telco usrs & govt are the losers in this. we pay the estimated loss 16m to Telekom for the surrender of the monopoly license.

Lifhaus dug up a few information here: http://www.lifhaus.com.sb/content/digicel-out-who-bemobile

But questions remain.  While meetdafamily may have some sources which will provide better information it was clear from the Bills & Legislation Committee's report in Auguest 2009 that Digicel was strongly favoured.  And issues that were raised was reported by Lifhaus on http://www.lifhaus.com.sb/content/digicel-admits-obvious-truth

But the committee was very receptive to Digicel views and so I see this decision as a major major U-Turn by government.

What does this mean for the customer?  As User1 said we and government lose out but on what?

I am of the view that bemobile is untested in the region, its predecessor bmobile was not very competitive against Digicel but it is learning fast and has rebranded itself and taken the first shot at preventing the advancement of Digicel into the region by blocking one of the major markets in the region.

We still stand to see.  Our Telekom promises 3G, bemobile has also promised a lot of things.  Lets hope they deliver on their promises.

I work for Our Telekom and most of us are shocked and still in shock due to the news that Digicel is not coming. We would love to have Digicel here; they are bigger fish to fry.

However Be-Mobile sounds interesting as well. I googled 'Digicel PNG Be-Mobile' and found out lots of interesting things that happened in PNG between these two mobile providers. Some are:
- They had inter-connection issues especially difficulty in sending SMS between the two networks. Digicel accused Be-Mobile of not sending proper data to enable SMS inter-connection.
- Some PNGS users in forums mentioned that BeMobile have a clearer quality voice connections than Digicel.
- Digicel offers Internet on mobile phones using GPRS, WAP. But speeds are slow.
- Be-Mobile offers Wireless Internet dongles with high speed transfer rates.
- Be-Mobile has reduced their call rates across all call types.
- Digicel quality of calls is low. Voice not that clear.
- Digicel & Be-Mobile are at war in everything.

So looks like Be-Mobile has been battle seasoned and will put up a good fight with Our Telekom.

Our Telekom services as is now is at a all time low. Its mobile service is just unspeakably poor. There is high call drops, congestion, no voice etc in basically everywhere. However Telekom has announced that they are replacing their mobile system with a top notch system promising 3G capabilities etc by Feb or March next yr.

In the news Be-Mobile promised to have their network in place within 6 months. That's by June 2010. The press release also said that they will cover 80% of the population within 21 months, thats by mid 2011. By that time the mobile market will be opened up to a 3rd entrant. Definitely Digicel will submit their application in April 2011.

So iumi wait nomoa. 2010 will be an interesting time for us in the communication front as well as the fact that 2010 is World Cup fever time as well as General Election fever time. Barata iumi in for a really really interesting yr next yr.

I am not surprised at all that the license has been awarded to Bemobile. Bemobile is a PNG company and if you analyse the circumstances surrounding the decision diligently, one should not be surprised.

For years PNG has been providing millions aid money to Solomon Islands. The majority of our students studying in PNG higher institutions are funded from aid money provided by the PNG givernment. This has been going on for years. Recently the PNG government also funded the Solomon Island chancery in Port Moresby with the cost running into millions of dollars. The PNG government has also been provided millions of dollars of direct aid to our government over a number of years. My wantoks, do you think that PNG would be providing its hard earned dollars for zero gain. No, as any one knows, the PNG government also wants to earn a return from the aid it provides to our country. It does not have to be direct payment from Solomon Islands (I doubt if Solomons has the funds to do so anyway!) but it expects easy access for its companies to operate in our economy. I believe this has now eventuated with a number of PNG companies now operating in the Solomon Island economy and many more will come in the future. The funds they earn from our economy will be 3 to 4 times the aid money they have spent for our students (tied aid) and the thousands that were paid directly into the economy.

The danger for the Solomon Islands government is that its interest will be comprised when it comes to making critical decision - as in the case of the awarding of the second license to Bemobile. The Committee making the decision can give all sorts of excuses that the decision was fair but the bottomline is that their decision was influenced politically. The scenario is that political probing from Moresby occured months before Bemobile made its bid and during the period that the Committee was deliberating. At the end of the Moresby line the voice at the other end will be gently reminding our politicians about the untold millions that their government had spend on Solomon Islands and its people over the years. At the Solomon Island end the respond will be an assurance that the bid is theirs. If the Solomon Islands overnment allow itself to be influenced by PNG aid money in such situation, it will only lead to decisions which are in the interest of PNG and not Solomon Islands.

Having said the above, this will be an opportunity for the Solomon Island mobile operator Our Telekom to show its competitive spirit.

Charlie, that is a very comprehensive luk luk lo comments blo Lifhaus on its first news item on this very hot news.  I admit come to think of it, hem look olsem as you say PNG firms are now benefiting from their governments investment in aiding Solomon Islands.
The latest Lifhaus news hem interesting too as it correctly points out that political interference may curtail any bemobile advancement because license ba no given yet and Cabinet still has to endorse the recommendation.  Sapos Cabinet hem in favour lo Digicel by umi lukim wan fala war?  Maybe not because olsem you talem the political wheels turn and leverage blo PNG is what good they have been doing for us......hmmm....I am seeing how this will pan out.  But here is something I would like to pose.  Digicel as we know has the backing of the World Bank in the bank's vision to end monopolies around the world.  So in the same light do you think the WB will also use the same argument to gavman in favour of Digicel.....maybe not.
BigRedFish, you seem to have some very interesting take on the quality of service and the gentle erosion of services as Digicel becomes more deeply entrenched into the community.  they seem to have very deep pockets though and can improve services quickly - lelebet faster then your beloved Our Telekom.
Anyway, the reality is if either networks prove to be useful then me fala wea copra lo home save ring anywhere, anytime....either by "feeling the breeze" or "be mobile"
you fala moa

@grafixfarm As User1 said we and government lose out but on what?

the obvious reason is the compo paid to Our telekom the $M will be better benefit more people through struggling govt services than only employees/NPF members to name a few. Maybe spare a life in one of our rural clinics.

I guess when negotiating the 15 yr monopoly the early termination & compo are precalculated.

we cant be all on the wire becos our citizenship(affordability) but we can on govt services as SI citizen.

May i comment on this issue that people have over the payment by the government to Telekom over the government's failure to honour its contractual obligations to Telekom.

The issue was a plain simple breach of contract: SIG signed a 15 yrs exclusive license to Telekom, but before the 15 yrs lapsed SIG decided to break that contract. In any legal binding contract, if you cant honour your end of the bargain than you have to compensate the other party's loss.

Telekom's loss will be the revenue that it will forego doing business in a competitive environment as opposed to doing business as a sole provider; as was quaranteed under the 15 yrs exclusive license signed by Telekom & SIG. The millions in payment that will be paid to Telekom is the cost of governments decision at the time of the contract signing.

Now for this kinds of bridge of contract settlement the word compensation is best not used; because for us in the Solomons 'compensation' carrys with it a plethora of negative denotations. For us the word compensation conjurs up images of truckloads of people demanding money with aggression over none-legal binding situations. The word is associated with militant demands. It is associated with unrealistic financial demands over alleged breach of socail or cultural taboos with no legal grounding. It demands askem seleni outside of law. For Telekom this was not the case. The payment was the cost of a business contract unrealised; in this case by Telekom.

Ating olsem fastaem.

The government had to compensate telekom for failing to honour its promise i.e. to give the later 15 years as sole provider of telecommunication in Solomon Islands. What we do not know is what telekom is obligated to over the 15 years. It is interesting to know that this new Bmobile promised to provide 80 something coverage in less than 2 years. What was telekom expected to achieve in terms of coverage in say 2 years, 5 years or 10 years? Was there any performance based indicator factored into the deal or was telekom given a 15 year free ride? It appears the contractual agreement entered by government with telekom was a lousy one.

What was Telekom's end of the bargain as part of the now defunct 15 yrs exclusive license?

A specific condition for the monopoly license is to provide communication service to the non-profitable rural areas. Telekom has put up operations in Lata, Kirakira, Taro, Rennel, Yandina, Auki, Gizo, Munda, Buala. These are all non-profitable cost centers, except for Noro, over Telekom's many yrs of operation. The business case for these centers is to reduce loss as opposed to making a profit, thus keeping these centers operational so that our provincial centers can have telecommunication services.

In 2000 in the height of the crisis, when most investors are seriously thinking to pull out of the country, Telekom kept all the provincial centers operational. It was during this period that the government decided to sign the 15 years exclusive license; maybe as a measure to safeguard Solomon Islanders of contineous telephone services in the country. We dont know what was the advice given to SIG however for Telekom it was a good business deal not to be missed.

Telekom has successfully kept all loss making provincial centers operational over the monopoly years and now it is further expanding into rural area proper. Within a competitive environment, companies are not obliged to provide services where it contineously makes a loss and in my opinion Telekom will definitely rethink maintaining what types of operation is best left at provincial stations so as to survive in a competitive environment. If i had my way, I will close down current Telekom full service operations in Lata, Renbel, Kirakira, Buala, Taro, Tulagi, yandina, and just keep mobile service there.

Now what any new mobile entrant will do over 1 or 2 yrs is known only to them.

For Telekom it has completed an expansive network of towers across the rural Solomons. It has expanded its tower network in Honiara. We are now waiting for work to be completed on the mobile system replacement that will address our current mobile service issues.

i had been a one time big opposition to Telekom.  Everything they said was garbage.....but now the word coming out of telekom is one of geniune remorse.  they admit their network is garbage....what have they done?  taken a huge risk by investing into a world class network by using a world class team/company.  what i have seen is a dramatic shift in attitude...had the privilege of sitting with the Top 100 customers during their business presentation and I must admit if their technicians and workers are up to the challenge put forward by management, we will see a lot of geniune improvements in coming months....I also came to another realization, credit to Telekom's slashing of rates, people now actually call and converse - they used to just hang their mobiles around the neck as part of the attire...
i wrote earlier that where Telekom now is not where it wants to be....that is because i was privy to information regarding its workers - many of them are not prepared to work in a competitive environment....a culture of laxity has grown and encroached the company.....this will not prepare it for competition.
my advice to Telekom is: get that 3G network up and running, offer competitive prices THEN fix your workers output, demand more out of them!  hopefully, we will see good things....bemobile is here but I am putting my sweat and grime into Telekom because thats the only way I will see some return in my investment with SINPF.  Thats the final piece of advice....if Telekom is a truly Solomon Islands owned company, it must work for the good of the working men!

Just been hearing that Bemobile wish negotiate with Our Telekom for the use of the latters infrastructure. Is Bemobile serious!? They must be kidding themselves.

I as a customer wish to see Bemobile enter the Solomon Islands telecommunication market and compete with the incumbent. Competition between the two providers should be in all facets of the industry. This also includes in areas such as infrastructure. I believe the cost of infrastructure plays a part in the rate they will offer customers therefore through competition they will ensure their operation is cost efficient. In the long-term, the customers will benefit.

Bemobile, we expect you to compete in the Solomon Islands' telecommunication market. Therefore start putting in place your own infrastrucure and refrain from been a parasite. I can only see danger lurking for pricing when such entities operating in a small market start colluding from the outset.

I don't know why people are worried about Bemobile sharing infrastructure with Telekom. It will make things cheaper all round for everyone. It's just like sharing an airport (for airlines) or the docks for boats. How would you like to have two mobile phone towers built on the hill behind your house, when only one is required?? Nothing parasitic, just smart business practice.

And inorder that such sharing can take place, a deal has to be reached. And that is what could turn out to be quite interesting.

i think the impression that bemobile is creating is not right and that is why people are very skeptical about the deal to share infrastructure...the language is also important...so I do not know who got it wrong, the media or bemobile themselves?

If I was bemobile I would have emphasized that I am building towers but where it is necessary I will share with Our Telekom.  The priority is on building the infrastructure.  But the impression that bemobile is creating now is "we do not have the capacity to build our own so we will share with Our Telekom"....you could forgive the laymen for being skeptical!!!!!...

As Nick said, two towers on the same lot doing the same thing is hardly necessary!....but looks like bemobile is already failing in the first instance - to create the right impression!....even the big glaring orange cheque will do little to change that perception....if you are a world class act, then act like one - spin the media to talk positively of you....I am losing faith!!!!....then again like Nati said this morning, "No mata Our Telekom hem no gud, me die go waitim oketa nomoa"!!!

Come on lot, let's not fret too much about BeMobile this or that. One thing that is sure is that competition has come..ok not visible yet but its here. That's all we need to know..that the Telco monopoly is broken and a new company is coming in and will be selling similar services..they will compete, prices will drop, service quality will/should pick up, more service options, customers will be treated first, more sponsorship/donation money to handout to the community, more advertisement dollar for DJ Graphics, Access Plus, Solomon Star, Island Sun, One News, SIBC, BigMaus production etc etc etc and all other goodies that come with competition, price war etc.

On the other side of the coin, lets also not throw away the following possibilities:
Landline services pulling out from provincial headquarters leaving just mobile services, outsourcing of jobs to cheaper offshore call centers, major redundancies in Telekom, intensive price war bringing both Telekom and BeMobile to their death - then birth of a new monopoly, collusion between telcos, mergers and acquisitions that will create pseudo-competition, customers spoilt for choice (if ever), more amature SI porn due to increase of high end phones with Dig cams, ok i better stop..you can add on more.

Guys make sure you have anything inflatable or already blown up within your reach cos its flood season time...just incase the floor underyou go whitewater rafting down to point cruz wharf! seke nomoa bata iu kamap from sea for take wind lo mamana didao nao!!! hehe

Ok back to topic....

Hey, where's all this amature SI porn?? I miss out on everything!!! :-)

Just the idea of more competitors will be beneficial to the public, as it offers more choice.. This need not impact the existing provider of services- for example, someone could set up a company which buys phone calls at wholesale rates from Telekom and then off sells these at a reduced rate masquerading as a different carrier; This could still drive competition in the ways of better service, products and pricing plans. It could also increase the total market saturation, which means that just because a competitor has come in, it does not mean the incumbent company will lose business. The end user probably wouldn't even know; provided there is not a decrease in network availability and call quality.
Technically there is no reason why you would not share infrastructure such as towers. From an implementation perspective, it would reduce the implementation time because you avoid a large cost in erecting another structure (with land purchasing, approval, design and construction) and also power delivery. Not to mention that you already have an idea of the potential coverage. A competitor could add additional capacity to existing towers and form a completely independent network, again, no one would notice.. I'm sure people wouldn't care that there was one tower instead of two, as long as they can make phone calls at 8pm Friday night and the calls don't drop out after 20 seconds.
If the company which was selected to compete (I find it odd that they have a selection process for competitors, instead of just opening up the market) is competing in bad spirits, they will be parasites regardless if any infrastructure was shared or not... and with one other alternative there's no one else to turn to if they both go bad..

Minus, open market, perfect competition etc has its obvious advtge but they also have their bad sides. In any industry there is a need for regulatory mechanism; unless you live in the USA. Regulatory mechanism is especially critical in small economies like ours in Solo.

While we would like to have a free for all open market; in the long run that would do us more harm than good. The industry will be killed before it even kicks off in its liberalised form.

The new Telco Act ensures we are not reckless in our thirst for competition. While it staggers the introduction of competitors, the Act facilitates entry for more than 2 or even 3 competitors in the Telco industry.

This year we will have one new mobile entrant. (Bemobile).

Just after 1 year (2011) the market will be further opened up for a 2nd entrant. Applicant will go through similar tender process for selection. The public expects Digicel to bid for the 2011 license. This time i am sure Digicel will bid smarter and procedurally; and not come in with their bulldozer you-take-it-or-leave-it approach that failed them in the last bid for the Solomon Islands operation.

After 2011 more Telco companies will have the opportunity to enter the local market.

Ma Mo,....wachu we mifala? mifala wea choko choko nomoa longo pabuliki foni ia? Ma oketa kebelo rasta bata kompatison lo we ia? Mifala kon fius nao..., kebolo fon bata se "Due to network congestion, your call cannot be connected as dialed, please try again later" taem kolem porovens. Hope 2011 competition will address old fashioned fixed lines.

User1 just to point out that we (users and govt) didn't pay the 16m ...actually taiwan paid the 16m ... it was extra or new money that was requested by the govt ....and as usual taiwan gave us the money

bemobile in SI ‘scandal’

By JONATHAN TANNOS

A MINOR shareholder of bemobile used $US15 million (K44 million) from the company to pay for a mobile licence in the Solomon Islands without board approval, it was revealed in Parliament yesterday.
GEMS Limited was named by Opposition Leader, Sir Mekere Morauta, when he raised a series of questions to State Enterprises Minister, Arthur Somare, on what he intended to do about it.
Sir Mekere said GEMS which holds 35 per cent in the company is also the manager of bemobile which is the main shareholder with 50 per cent.
bemobile is partly owned by Telikom PNG and its other shareholders include PNGSDP, Nambawan Supa, and Nasfund with five per cent each.
In response to Sir Mekere, minister Somare, said he had no knowledge about it and would investigate the matter. “Are you aware that GEMS Limited has unilaterally used $US15 million of bemobile funds to pay for a Solomon Islands mobile licence,” Sir Mekere asked.“These funds had been contributed by bemobile shareholders to fund a specific capital works program for bemobile in Papua New Guinea.
“The $US15 million was paid without the knowledge or authorisation of the board of bemobile or the other shareholders.”
Sir Mekere asked what action Telikom was going to take as majority shareholder and if GEMS was going to be removed as manager of bemobile. He also asked if the money was recoverable given that it was paid without proper authorisation.
“What now is the fate of the planned capital works program for bemobile in PNG, given that $US15 million of money contributed by shareholders has been paid to the Solomon Islands,” he asked.“Who will now fund bemobile’s capital works program, given that other shareholders will be wary of putting money in the way of GEMS, the managers.
“If bemobile does not have sufficient capital to fund the upgrade and expansion of infrastructure in PNG, how will it fund the roll-out of the capital works program required to establish a mobile network in Solomon Islands.”

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