Sim-card sales drop almost 50pc

Tuesday, 08 June 2010 23:46 Salai Han Thar San

New Delhi (Mizzima) - Sales of single-use prepaid Sim cards have plunged around 50 per cent, a result Rangoon retailers are blaming on a law - introduced since water-festival blasts in April were allegedly triggered by mobile phones - that requires prospective buyers to present copies of their national identification cards.

Phone-shop owners in Rangoon Division unanimously cited the Thingyan water-festival period as their turnover turning point, as the law came in the aftermath of the summer bombings.

“Since [the regulation that we must] ask for ID card copies [was issued], sales have declined by almost a half,” a phone shop sales manager in Tamwe Township, in east-central Rangoon, told Mizzima. “Before Thingyan festival, we were selling almost 300 cards daily. Now we can sell only 150 a day.”

A salesman from a phone shop at Mayangone Township in northern Rangoon said: “At first most customers didn’t return … after saying they would go home and retrieve their ID cards.”

“Now customers are aware of the new requirement so they bring copies of their ID cards with them when buying Sim cards from us. But sales have dropped by almost 50 per cent,” the salesman said.

National Police Chief Brigadier General Khin Yi told the press in Naypyidaw early this month that bombers had used mobile phones to trigger a series of blasts on April 15 at a water-festival pavilion in Kandawgyi Park, Rangoon, which killed 10 people including a high-ranking military officer and injured 170. The requirement was introduced after the police claim.

The prepaid Sim cards were introduced by Central Marketing in 2008 after the Ministry of Communications, Post and Telegraph had granted the subsidiary of junta crony Tay Za’s Htoo Trading group the right as sole agent for their sale of the cards for GSM phones.

Tay Za, his companies and family members are on US, European and Australian targeted sanction lists because their dealings provide economic support to Burma’s repressive regime. They are also banned from travelling to the US.

The junta also recently granted him and other cronies banking licences.

“Central Marketing told us to ask for copies of prospective customers’ ID cards, which we are required to submit to that company,” a sales manager at a Latha Township retailer said. “It then must resubmit these copies to the [ministry’s] Mobile Communications Department.”

Central Marketing has the right as sole agent to market the single-use Sim cards at the prices of FEC (foreign exchange certificates; US$1 = FEC 1) 10, 20 and 50, with phone numbers of nine digits, starting with “09”.

FEC 10 and 20 Sim cards can be used in GSM handsets. FEC 10 are valid for 14 days and the FEC 20, one month. The former are available at retailers for 15,000 Kyats and FEC 20 are available at between 20,000 and 22,000 Kyats depending on black-market exchange rates.

FEC 50 Sim cards can be used in coastal areas in CDMA 450 MHz handsets and are valid for two months. At local retailers they cost between 50,000 and 55,000 Kyats. The cards entered the market last June. FEC 20s were launched in December 2008.