Cable and hotel excites man driving Digicel

By Deidre Tautua-Fanene 11 January 2018, 12:00AM

The start of the year is an exciting time for the Chief Executive Officer of Digicel Samoa, Farid Mohammed.

He is particularly keen on the benefits Digicel customers will reap when the Tui Samoa Cable submarine is completed.

 “What everyone is waiting for at the moment is the arrival of the cable and we work very closely with the Samoa Submarine Cable Company,” Mr. Mohammed told the Samoa Observer yesterday.

“Our plans are at the back of this cable and there’s going to be upgrades to our network in order for us to deliver to customers the best service the cable has to offer.”

“Commercially there’s going to be a lot more promotions that we’ve always been doing in Samoa and we will continue to do those as when it is planned out.”

“But yes the big wait for this year is the cable.”

And there’s more. Digicel is also contructing a $35million hotel in Sogi.

“That’s another big project that Digicel has embarked on,” he said.

“We are aiming to have that completed before the South Pacific Games so that’s another major project that we have on hand.”

“I guess apart from that, the usual promotions that we continue to have; these are the two or three big projects that we have embarked on.”

Looking back to 2017, Mr. Mohammed said it was a big year for the company. 

“I know we’ve had challenges through the year, but it has been a wonderful year with whatever we had on hand, especially from a network and data point of view, we’ve been able to offer our customers the best data services we can here in Samoa,” Mr. Mohammed said.

“The double data promotion is still on, the Meaalofa phone card is still on, they will continue to run until the end of January and in time for our new promotions to be launched.”

“All in all, 2017 has been a wonderful year for Digicel.”

Mr. Mohammed added one of the highlights of 2017 was the All in One Bundle promotion.

“It has been our biggest success that we have done in a long time. It was the first time that we have bundled voice, messages and data in one point and that has never been done in Samoa before,” said Mr. Mohammed.

“So it was one of our biggest highlights and we had a good run in 2017 and the number of customers who are opting in the All in One Bundle is getting better and better.”

“We are looking forward to making it better with the cable and more data and everything else.”

“Apart from that, we also did the Joseph Parker trip for the two girls to travel to Europe to watch his fight that was very well received.”

“We also had cash giveaway that we did last year so in between, there were two or three major promotions that we had done that were the key highlights for 2017.”

Mr. Mohammed also spoke about the slow internet that many customers complained about.

However, he says this is one of the advantages of the submarine cable.

“During the festive season, the internet was a bit slow because there were a lot of visitors coming in and there are a lot of users, plus the weather was not good either,” Mr. Mohammed said.

“That’s why we are very much looking forward to the cable because it brings more stability and reliability and it is more resilient to this weather.”

“So in time to come, once the cable is fully commissioned and we have access to it that will improve the overall user experience on data.”

Moreover, he says he looks forward to what this year brings for their customers and Digicel.

“I want to thank all the customers so far and I want to say all the best to everyone for 2018 and we are looking forward in bringing more exciting stuff.”

By Deidre Tautua-Fanene 11 January 2018, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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