www.lifhaus.com.sb

Our Telekom is making every attempt to consolidate its position as the country's premier telecommunications company.  Our Lifhaus sources say that the company's technical and marketing section have been working diligently to ensure that the products it can offer on its 3G mobile network is provided to public as soon as possible.  Already the month of September has been earmarked for the launch of two major products.  MMS, or multimedia messaging service, is the first product set to be launched in the first week of September while the Mobile Data products are earmarked for the middle of September.

"Our mobile data network, that is having the capability to surf the internet from your handset, has been in service for a while now.  Postpaid customers are using this service for free while some customers who have prepaid mobile phones and are willing to trial the service have been enjoying the use of the service for a minimal fee." said our Lifhaus source.  What the company aims to do now is to ensure that this service is billed and that customers will be able to buy packages for such a service.

Lifhaus is aware that trial customers who have been using this service have commended Our Telekom for bringing the Internet to their mobile phones.  One such customer who spoke with Our Telekom remarked, "it used to be very difficult and very expensive to get ADSL but now with a few changes on your mobile phone, you can get Internet on the phone or use it as a modem and surf on your laptop.  It is very easy to setup and easy to use."

Lifhaus also understands that the launch of MMS will signal the completion of phase 2 of the company's network upgrade currently done by Huawei.  The three phase project will now see Huawei deliver the final phase which is integrating the company's existing landline network with the current new network.  "There is a possibility that once our landline is incorporated with our mobile network that some work will be done on the Internet network.  So customers should expect improvements and a large variety of services sold as one from Our Telekom."  said our source revealed.  At present, customers lodge separate applications for each service they require "but we are moving to the stage where customers can simply pick bundles such as your ADSL, mobile phone and landline packaged and delivered as one product."

When questioned about MMS, our source revealed, "MMS will give you the ability to send pictures, short video clips and music as an SMS message immediately.  For example, you watch the Solo Icon show and had just taken a photo or short video clip of the winner.  You can send this over the mobile phone network immediately to friends all over the Solomon Islands or even to our partner carriers overseas who have MMS enabled on their mobile network.  Information moves and people get it instantly, that is the beauty of MMS.  It enhances SMS capabilities to have the ability to send content rich information to others on the mobile phone network."

While all this is happening at Our Telekom, Lifhaus News Desk is also aware that beMobile is working around the clock to launch its mobile network.  Faced with the possibility of another hefty fine, beMobile has gone into overdrive to meet its obligation to government.  beMobile which has also contracted Huawei Technologies to build its mobile phone network reportedly tested its first call a few days ago and now looks likely to avoid the fine.

The race is already underway and very soon Solomon Islanders will see a "war" of sorts happening as the two competitor jostle for pole position and every last cent you can spend on telecommunications.