Mobile Mela
People busy buying SIM cards
Fair extended by one day
Star Business Report
Thousands of people were buying GrameenPhone (GP) connections at the lowest-ever price at the mobile phone fair in Dhaka yesterday as the leading cellphone operator's price war gathers momentum.The huge turnout of visitors forced the event management people to stop selling entry tickets at one stage. The visitors, mostly young people, were seen scampering for subscription forms to get a SIM (subscriber identity module) card at Tk 650 including a free Tk 300 pre-paid phone card. The rush of the visitors prompted the fair organiser, GP, to extend the show by one more day. The second version of the fair that began on Wednesday will now continue until Sunday. “I have come here at 9:30 in the morning to avoid crowd, but in vain. I am waiting in the queue for two hours but could not manage a SIM card," said Ashraful Haque, a college student who came all the way from Tongi. The pressure of the queuing crowd was so intense that structures of some stalls collapsed. "What can we do? We are delivering SIM at the quickest possible time but it seems that there is no ending to customers. We have not enough manpower and space to handle the crowd," salesman of a stall said. To avoid the crowd rush, GP announced at the fair that customers will get SIM card at the fair-rate from any authorised dealer and outlet anywhere in Bangladesh. The GP also announced that it has enough connections to meet demand and SIM will also be available at the fair-rate even after Eid. But people seem to be obsessed to get it now. Swarming visitors were crowding and crowding. "I think it's the best chance to buy a SIM at this price. I'll buy one for my younger brother as Eid gift," said Parvez Alam, a banker and a resident of Lalmatia. "We are amazed by onrush of people at the fair. Offer of a SIM without handset at the lowest-ever price may be the factor," said Mushfiqus Saleehin, an officer at GP's Customer Relation Centre at the fair. GP offers a package of connection and handset at lowest Tk 4,145. But people seem to be less interested in the package. Sale of handsets at the fair, styled Mobile Mela, was overshadowed by the low-priced connection offer. Participating handset vendors Siemens, Flora Telecom (Sagem), Motorola, Unitel (Nokia), Grameen Telecom (Nokia), Discovery Communications (Panasonic), TCL Mobile, Hayes & Haier, Brothers (Maxon), Electra Telecom (Samsung) were witnessing sales below expectation.
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