March 15, 2013

UK giants Vodafone eyes majority shares in BeMobile

Honiara, Solomon Islands; BeMobile has undoubtedly found competition in the Solomon Islands to be tougher then it originally anticipated.  The parent company based out of Papua New Guinea is said to be accumulating debt and losing market shares.  The blame lies squarely on squabbling between major shareholders PNG Telikom and "Hong Kong based shareholder GEMS over key management decisions and appointments".  Even the Solomon Islands outfit has had a high turnover of CEO's within the last 2 years of its arrival in the country.

However, all that is set to change as sources reveal to the Lifhaus News Desk.  "Vodafone is set to buy a 50% stake in embattled Mobile Network Operator, BeMobile  which will extend the UK mobile giants footprint into Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands" said our source.  This move when announced will provide a distinct advantage to BeMobile.

"Vodafone with its extensive years of experience in Fiji will bring in much needed technical expertise and marketing poweress to the company."

Three reasons make this an attractive preposition for Vodafone.  Firstly, the PNG regulator will be introducing infrastructure sharing which will see BeMobile boost its coverage by piggy-backing on Digicel's extensive coverage.  Secondly, as Vodafone upgrades infrastructure in key market areas it can afford to redeploy infrastructure to PNG and the Solomon Islands effectively doubling its coverage in these countries.  Finally, the opportunity of expanding to vibrant markets like PNG and the Solomon Islands is also an opportunity too good to pass up.

For BeMobile our source also confirmed "in the Solomon Islands, the company just does not know how to compete and to some extent how to run a mobile phone company.  That too is about to change as the company attracts a younger, more vibrant workforce bringing with them new ideas on how to effectively compete against Our Telekom.  This kind of workforce will benefit tremendously from a partnership with a world renowned company like Vodafone"

Our Lifhaus sources at Our Telekom remarked, "we are aware of these negotiations (rumours) surrounding the aquisition of shares by Vodafone. We are certainly ready to meet the challenge.  Our greatest strength is our local knowledge of the market and the loyalty of our customers."

Interesting days ahead and should Vodafone finalize the deal, it will certainly make an interesting competition between the two companies.  Lifhaus has also seen debate which clearly show a strong local support for Our Telekom.

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