Will cheap sim cards finally end the black market in Myanmar?

[SeaVisionBurma]

The black market in SIM cards appears to be on the brink of extinction. Now that Ooredoo and Telenor have been selected as operators to develop the nationwide mobile network, savvy customers are waiting to go legit.

From The Myanmar Times by Aung Kyaw Nyunt

Qatari telecoms provider Ooredoo says its cards will be available in six months, and Norway-based Telenor says its 30 million cards will be on the street by October.

A GSM SIM card with a face value of K1500 can now be had under the table for about K115,000, while K5000 top-up cards can fetch K60,000-K70,000.

“The black market in SIM cards is down a little as demand sags. Many people are waiting for the release of the operators’ SIM cards. If they release enough of them, I think the black market could disappear,” said Ma Pa Pa of KKA Mobile shop in Kyauktada township.

“I will buy the operators’ SIM cards because they will be cheap and plentiful. They will also guarantee the best internet connection. I think the SIM card black market will disappear” agreed mobile aficionado Ko Aung Thu.

Read the full article here: http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/business/technology/9584-will-cheap-sim-cards-end-the-black-market.html

What are our members' thoughts on this?

Has anyone had to pay a ridiculous price for sim cards? Share your tales of mobile woes and shenanigans below

[Dap]

Sounds like a nice break for the locals as long as nobody figures

a new angle to keep screwing the populace. Most thieves don't

cotton to well to losses in their criminal enterprises

[Nemesis7]

Man...it's a money sucking business. These te,e operators will bribe the govt telecom sector and eventually will make profit lime hell. If the cost of a local call is 1 bhat they will charge 7 baths....how I know?? That's what this Qatari telecom and telenor does at Pakistan, Bangladesh and under developed nations . I know from a reliable source telenor under the name of garmeen phone has more than 56 million subscriber in Bangladesh and their revenue is roughly 70 million USD per month. And profit is roughly 35 mil net.....

[belg]

so who was supplying those black market cards ? thais ?

why would anyone pay so much more ?

[SeaVisionBurma]

so who was supplying those black market cards ? thais ?

why would anyone pay so much more ?

Why would it have been Thais? This story is about Myanmar.

and people were paying more because there was no supply of sim cards. If you wanted to use one, you had to pay a lot.

[DagonKhan]

I'm hoping that the internet through these guys will be a lot faster than what we can get at the moment.

For those people out there whose only option is Skylink, which is stupidly expensive, this could be very welcome. Companies like Yatanarpon are limited to customers who have a line phone. I can see Telenor and Ooredoo becoming the de facto ISP's if they get it right. I know I'm not the only one who connects his computer to the internet through a mobile phone!

Sent from my GT-I9082 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[phazey]

If i get my way, it'll be top class 3G.