HOUSE OF THE WEEK

An abundance of space at FMI City

CERTAINLY, space is not a problem in this house – once you get there. Over the Hlaing River, 45 minutes from downtown, there is a large one-storey house in a big compound waiting for someone ready to trade time for space. ...more

Yangon Weather Forecast, Burma

Prepaid phone cards sales double in year

SALES of prepaid phone cards have doubled since they first came on the market one year ago – and demand has also doubled, mobile shops say.

In December 2008, when they were new on the market, hard to find and plagued with production difficulties, GSM prepaid cards sold for K40,000 or more. But by December this year, the price was down by half, said U Ko Ko Aung, the manager of Lu Gyi Min mobile shop.

“The price of prepaid cards is not fixed – it depends on the FEC exchange rate. In December last year when the prepaid cards reached the market, they cost a lot because they were hard to find. Customers paid excessive prices, which were set by the authorised dealers. At that time, a GSM prepaid card cost more than K40,000. But now prepaid cards can be found in every mobile shop, so the price is down to K20,000-K25,000 – and demand is up as well,” he said.

U Kyaw Kyaw Moe, who is the owner of New Life mobile shop, said the demand had doubled over the past year.
“In January, we were selling 500 cards per month, but the demand was slowly increasing. By the first week of December, we were selling nearly 1000 cards per month. Prepaid cards are easy to buy now and this is the main reason for increasing demand. They have become the most sought-after phone cards on the domestic market,” he said.

GSM prepaid cards do not generate much profit for sellers despite their popularity, because there is so much competition, said Ko Sithu, manager of Mr Fone mobile shop.

“We don’t expect big profits from prepaid cards because there are so many mobile shops that sell them. Keeping our regular customers is more important for us than making a quick profit. For both GSM and CDMA prepaid cards we take just K2000 profit per card. I don’t know about other mobile shops, but in my shop the demand for GSM prepaid cards is higher than for CDMA. Normally, I sell 10 GSM cards and five CDMA cards a day,” he said.

He added that the sale of both types of prepaid cards would continue to be healthy in 2010 if there was no significant change in policy.

“But if they bring out a FEC30 or FEC40 card, demand will go up again,” Ko Sithu said.