bemobile establishes customer base in Solomon Islands

NEW mobile service provider bemobile says it plans to attract at least 25,000 customers by the end of this year.

The Papua New Guinea-based company under its recently issued licence is required to start operations in April this year and cover about 80 per cent of the country in its first year.

According to Solomon Star news bemobile's chief executive officer Julien Coustaury and his team arrived this week in Honiara to begin ground work.

The company has engaged sub-contractors that included engineers, civil engineers, human resource personnel, as well as local and foreign technicians.

"We have about 50 people on the ground both expatriates and locals who are teaming up to start the work," he said.

He said recruitments will start soon, with the creation of between 200-300 new jobs.

Mr Coustau ry said in areas where Solomon Islands does not have the skills, overseas experts will be sought.
"But in the coming years, bemobile Solomon Islands will be operated by 95-98 per cent Solomon Islanders," he said.

Mr Coustaury said ground work started in December straight after Prime Minister Dr Derek Sikua issued them their licence.

"This is done without any office," he said.

He said a new office will be established soon but the CEO declined to reveal where they will be operating from.

Mr Coustaury said he already visited parts of Guadalcanal since arriving in the country and if weather permits his team will travel to other nearby islands today to look for and survey potential sites.

He said the company will launch its services by mid this year and rollout to other provinces from there.

He also clarified that they've applied for a business licence under PNG bemobile which is still legal and they hope to get their licence soon.

"All paper works have been done, our delay earlier is due to other missing paper works before the licence was issued," he said.

The new company will be called bemobile Solomon Islands.

The French man yesterday assured Solomon Islanders of the best and quality services that will be affordable.

He said they are excited about the new development and thanked everyone for having trust in them.
"We want to send a message to the Solomon Islands. You can count on us," he said.