FDL to give mobile users option to list

Fiji's 280,000 mobile phone subscribers from next year will have the option of listing their numbers in the Fiji Directory.

The mobile listing will cost $5 and will enable subscribers to list their numbers if they wish, Amalgamated Telephone Holding Ltd, acting chief executive officer, Tomasi Vakatora said.

He says that as new players enter the market, it will actually develop the market further for this service.

"It has been designed in anticipation that if there are other players in the market, people who subscribe to these other services can also come to Fiji Directory and also apply to list their numbers so it can also be in the telephone directory.



"We are already positioning ourselves for that," he said.

He says that because Fiji Directories Ltd is an ATH company, it does not necessarily mean limiting the services to ATH companies like Vodafone (mobile phone service provider) and Telecom Fiji (provider of land line services).

"The service is available. Pay the fee just like anybody else. There will be no preferential treatment for our customers or customers of competitors."

Moreover, Vakatora says that if they continue offering this service for free it may mean doubling or tripling the size of the current telephone directory because of the huge number of mobile phone subscribers.

Vakatora believes it would be particularly useful for people who have prepaid numbers because "right now when you go to buy prepaid phones, you get the phone, they give you a number and off you go".

Forms are already available in post offices across the country if mobile phone subscribers wish to apply to have the numbers listed from 2008 onwards.

Vakatora believes the $5 mobile listing is relatively cheap. "It is permanent for the whole year and works out to be a little more than 40 cents a month."

On how much revenue Fiji Directories will earn, Vakatora says there has been no projection as yet "but it should be sufficient to meet our cost"

"We hope it is going to be a good revenue source for us," he said.

And what happens if you lose your mobile, or your number is delisted?

Vakatora admits that it is not entirely risk free.

"Of course, people on prepaid tend to delist. Sometimes they don't renew and the numbers get redundant and it gets used by other people. It is a risk you take," he said.

Still he believes that there is sufficient number of people who are long term users on prepaid basis and that they will want to list their numbers because they are fairly certain they will remain connected to the network.

ATH owns 90 per cent of FDL while Edward H O'Brien (Fiji) Ltd owns the remaining 10 per cent shares.