But this comes at a charge.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Loyley Ngira revealed this on Wednesday in a press conference.
With inter-connect, mobile customers from Our Telekom and bemobile can call each other.
Mr Ngira said the interconnect agreement has allowed the two companies charging each other for the flow of traffic datas made through calls per seconds or minutes.
“There is an agreement between the two companies called ‘inter-connect’ where the two companies charge each others for calls that have been terminated.
“This is called the termination rate,” he said.
The CEO said these interconnect rates will be reflected in the price that customers paid when making calls through their mobiles.
“Each minute the calls are made there are charges being imposed,” he said.
So if a Telekom mobile customers discharges call to a bemobile customer, Our Telekom charges $1.50 per minute and vice versa.
“That’s the Our Telekom rate since July last year.
“We do not change these rates,” Mr Ngira said.
bemobile on the other hand is charging $1.10 per minute for calls made to another bemobile customer.
Mr Ngira said they will decide on their tariff pricing for mobile calls later.
“However, the new tariff must be approved by the Telecommunication Commissioner,” he said.
Mr Ngira also clarified that their handsets are unlocked and can use bemobile sim cards.
It is understood bemobile’s handsets can use Our Telekom sim cards because they are unlocked as well.
Any plans by Our Telekom to lock their handsets will be decided later, the Telekom boss said.
“We will think about whether to lock our handsets or not.
“At this point of time we do-not lock them,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Ngira said top-up of credits for each of these two companies are done separately.
“Our Telekom customer cannot top up his/her credits using a bemobile top-up facility and vice versa because they have different systems,” he said.
Mr Ngira said in the Pacific Our Telekom was the first company to use the electronic top-up for credit using “Me Top-Up”.
He said they acquired the technology from a company called ‘Mo-Magic’.
“Now other Pacific islands are requesting such technology which had proved to be handy because people no longer use scratch cards and vouchers,” he said.
By MOFFAT MAMU
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
