A worker at R$S Software displays a new mobile telephone application at the company’s office in Latha township.

DELAYS in issuing new SIM cards has cut mobile phone sales by half compared to the onset of the rainy season, industry professionals say.

Though plenty of handsets are available on the market, the SIM card has to be issued by Myanma Post and Telecommunications (MPT) through an auction process. In this process interested parties submit an application to MPT, which then ‘auctions’ the SIM cards off.

“Sales are cold – down by 50 percent compared to last May. It’s because the new SIM card licences have not yet been. The whole market depends on the granting of SIM cards. Sales will recover only when they are issued,” said the manager of Mr Fone mobile shop in Kamaryut township, Ko Sithu.

While the CDMA 450 MHz phones are popular in coastal areas, the Yangon mobile market depends on GSM sales, he said.

Ko Kyaw Kyaw, of Mobile King, Tarmwe township, said: “Sales are down by half. People are now looking at their budget before buying a new handset, and also the new SIM card licences haven’t yet been released, so the handsets market has gone cold.”

“People prefer to buy more economical phones. Guys like to have functional phones and girls like to have fashionable phones,” said manager Ma Lwin Mar Htun of the Amt mobile marts, Mingalar Taung Nyunt township said.

Most customers buy the GSM, at prices ranging from K100,000 to K200,000, and the Nokia models 513, 1300, 6303, 2800 and N97 are also popular now, she said.

The mobile market normally slows down during the monsoon, from June to September, before rising in advance of the Thadingyut festival season. Sales also rise up in April when the MPT grant a lot of SIM card licences before closing out the budget year.

Though handset sales are down, mobile shops are still busy selling accessories, repair services and multimedia and software services, said Ko Sithu of Mr Fone.

“Once they’ve bought a handset, customers don’t replace it until it’s beyond repair. People used to change handsets every couple of years, but now we get a regular income from repairs and servicing,” he said.

The mobile phone market is not expanding, but the emergence of new competitors is shaving the retailers’ profit margins, especially when they launch sales promotions, offer discounts and free servicing.