Mobile prices falling in Burma

Wednesday, 13 January 2010 18:51 Khaing Suu

New Delhi (Mizzima) – The announcement to make available over 130,000 additional SIM cards for mobile phones has sounded the death knell of the black market business in the cards with prices plummeting.

Mobile phone dealers in Rangoon said prices for a second-hand SIM card for Global System for Mobile (GSM) phones has dropped to about 1.4 million kyat (USD 1,400) from about USD 1,700.

Similarly, the prices of a SIM for CDMA phones have also fallen from the earlier USD 2000 to USD 1700.

Zaw Zaw, a mobile dealer in Rangoon, said “in December the prices for second-hand SIM cards were about USD 1700 and a brand new SIM card was about USD 1800. Now it is USD 1400 for a second-hand one and about USD 1600 for a brand new SIM card.”

Prices of SIM cards are also dropping because the government has increased the call rates, he added. However, despite the decrease in prices, sales of SIM cards have been tardy.

“There are fewer customers wanting to buy and rent telephones. Most of them are only asking for the prices,” Zaw Zaw said.

In Burma, ruled by the military for decades, the use of telephones and mobiles are controlled by the government. Limited numbers are given out, partly due to the lack of infrastructure to accommodate widespread use of public telecommunication as well as an opportunity for officials to earn additional income from the sales of telephone lines and SIM cards.

The official rate for a GSM mobile SIM is about 150,000 Kyat (USD 150), but as the number of SIM allotted by the authorities are limited, most people have to buy them in the black market, which is about ten times the original price.

On January 6, the government-run state newspaper, New Light of Myanmar, announced that the regime will make available over 130,000 new mobiles along with 40,000 landlines and set up 70 auto-operated exchange centers across the country.

Meanwhile, the regime since New Year has announced, a revision of call rates for various mobile phones including GSM, WCDMA and CDMA 450 Mhz. Under the new rate, local calls are to be charged 50 Kyat per pulse, from Kyat 25 earlier.

But for cellular mobiles including CDA 800 Mhz, the call rates are expected to remain the same.

In Burma, with a population of about 55 million, there are now about over two million telephones lines.

Though mobile users in Burma are able to send text messages (SMS) at a rate of Kyat 25 per message, with no international roaming facility they are still unable to send text messages to overseas recipients.