This will include building more telecommunication towers and expanding its mobile phone network coverage.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Loyley Ngira said this at a press conference yesterday.
“At the end of August we have about 90, 000 mobile phone which had grown significantly,” Mr Ngira said.
“We intend to grow it further because of the potential of the market to enable more people to buy more mobile phones and sim cards to access our services
“We are committed to grow our market share,” he said.
Mr Ngira said currently Our Telekom has 65 mobile towers around the country – 17 of them in Honiara and 48 in the provinces.
With the competition bemobile brought to the industry this week, Our Telekom plans to add 40 to 50 news sites around the country in the coming years.
This is because Our Telekom had received so much interest from the communities to set up mobile sites near their communities.
“We have about 500 applications with communities offering their land for mobile towers.
“And we are processing and screening them at the moment,” he said.
While it is expensive to build these infrastructures and maintain them over time, Mr Ngira said they will look at options to cater for these infrastructures in the rural areas.
“Maintaining and operating these sites are a huge challenge for the company and we are closely discussing ways to improve our services,” he said.
Mr Ngira said under the rural unity project, some 30 new sites have been constructed within three months.
He said currently more towers are being launched around the country.
bemobile on the other hand had launched its service with 19 towers up and running with plans to build more than a hundred towers around over the next five years.
By MOFFAT MAMU
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