Pan-Pacific service to be rolled out in 18-24 months

Dev Nadkarni
After taking over Telecom New Zealand's 90 percent stake in Telecom Samoa-its joint venture with the Computer Services Limited (CSL), a Government of Samoa enterprise, for NZ$29 million earlier this year-Digicel la unched its Pacific operations with Digicel Samoa in late October last year.

Days before the launch, both the Samoan media and Apia's streetscape-including prominent landmarks and street corners-were awashed with bright red-Digicel's signature colour.

The launch function itself took place at Samoa's most famous address, the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum, amidst a locally choreographed fashion show with models sashaying with the new range of mobiles-and speeches by the country's prominent citizens, including the Prime Minister.

A product launch campaign of a kind almost never seen before in Samoa ensured serpentine queues across newly acquired, heavily festooned outlets even at the crack of dawn on the day the service was to be flagged off.

On offer to Telecom Samoa's 35,000-odd customers was a choice of three GSM phone models free of cost to replace their old TDMA handsets. They were also able to retain their existing phone numbers and choose from a slew of affordable call plans.

Digicel also brought to the country a range of GSM phones starting from as low as T99, going all the way up to T1000 for the high-end models.

Digicel director Seamus Lynch said the company had set up a "24 x 7, 365 days-a-year customer service operation" that would be available for all technical and commercial assistance. The fully manned, bi-lingual call centre fielded calls from the very first hour after the  launch.

Unlike the case of the previous operator, the company has its own information technology section and all IT needs are attended to from within Samoa. He said the company's total investment in Samoa would amount to about T110 million. That figure includes the cost of purchasing Telecom Samoa.

General Manager for the Pacific, Vanessa Slowey said the company had already employed 140 Samoans in various functions.

The company is focused on customer services. Twenty-six dealers have been appointed countrywide and a new concept called "mobile dealership" has been launched where a customer can ring the mobile dealer and have the phone delivered at home.

Digicel Pacific Marketing Manager, Niamh Byrne told ISLANDS BUSINESS this innovation has proved extremely popular with Samoans outside the main urban areas.

Another innovation that has proved popular is the "call me" service. Whenever a customer has credit of less than 20 sene in the account, he or she can send a free text to anyone with a "call me" message. "We've had 17,000 call me texts in just nine days since launch," Byrne told ISLANDS BUSINESS. There is also a 24-hour drive through top-up centre operating in downtown Apia. These are first-time initiatives in the Pacific Islands region.

With extended dealerships for both phones and top-up cards, getting on to the network is now in easy reach of most Samoans. Forty  three towers across the country enable the new service to reach 90 percent of Samoa's population on its main islands and the minor inhabited ones. This is nearly seven times the reach of the previous service provider.

David Borrill, Country Manager for Digicel Samoa (formerly Telecom Samoa's General Manager), said with the massive scaling up of the capacity to accommodate as many as 100,000 customers, congestion would no longer be a problem.

Earlier Samoa, like several other Pacific islands markets, faced massive congestion problems especially during peak times.

The company launched the service with a number of innovative pricing schemes. Top-up cards start from as low as ST5. Billing is on a per-second usage basis. Depending on the plans and time of call, countrywide calls cost between 25 and 75 sene.

Rates to New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific islands cost just T1.00 a minute. No call terminated anywhere in the world exceeds T3.00 a minute. Text messages worldwide are 20 sene per message. A number of post-paid and corporate plans have also been announced.

The new network gives Samoans the facility of roaming in 140 countries across 400 networks. Though not announced, roaming rates would also be attractively priced, company sources said.

Digicel Pacific brings with it the know-how and experience its sister company Digicel Limited has acquired in the Caribbean region where it is involved in 20 markets. Following through on its track record of entering new markets where communication needs are under-served, as was the case in the Caribbean countries, Digicel Pacific has charted out plans to move quickly into other Pacific Islands countries.

In addition to Samoa, Digicel Pacific has been awarded a GSM licence from the government of Papua New Guinea where it plans to launch this year.

It also has been granted an in-principle licence from the government of Fiji in April 2006, as well as an experimental licence in the Solomon Islands.

With recent developments in Fiji, a start date for operations in the country is uncertain.

Just after its Samoa launch, Digicel executives are believed to have visited Tonga in a bid to acquire Tonfon. The recently crowned King Siaosi Tupou V has since announced that he would dispose of his private investments (which would include his stake in Tonfon).

Digicel Pacific, however, has declined to discuss further progress on its Tongan plans. It is also said to be in talks with the Nauruan administration for a cellular service there.

Recognising the subtly different needs of individual islands markets, Slowey emphasises that Digicel does not follow a one-size-fits-all approach and will address local needs while factoring in regional and global integration. In all the markets that it operates, Digicel employs local talent, investing in training and the efficient transfer of skills to build local capacity in technical, marketing and customer service functions.

"Ninety-five percent of our 2000 staff in the Caribbean are of local origin, and the same is now the case with Samoa and will be with the rest of the Pacific," she says.

Digicel hopes to roll out its pan-Pacific service in the next 18 to 24 months.