Telecom service provider BravoCom, has ordered Ethiopic text Nokia phones with 3G capability that should enter the market toward the end of August reports Nazret.
In an effort to localize products, mobile giant Nokia had launched five Amharic phones in September of this year. It is by adding another eleven models to this list that BravoCom plc, official distributor for Nokia, plans to make its presence felt in a market that recently has had to entertain sudden demand due to the release of SIM cards.
This has caught off guard major mobile phone distributors including Levi Girma Wake, General Manager and majority share holder of BravoCom.
In mobile phone shops Capital surveyed, pricing on handsets show increments as high as 45 ETB on average. The sudden demand seems to be able to last for a while as ETC officials are saying adequate SIM cards are available. The mobile phone market was slow for months and major distributors didn’t have stock when ETC released the SIM cards last week.
BravoCom was not particularly hurt by the absence of SIM cards from the market as it secured a deal to distribute Nokia phones not only to Ethiopia but also to Horn of Africa countries.
Taking advantage of the duty free zone in neighboring Djibouti, BravoCom has established an independent company [BravoCom Free Zone Company] there. Levi explained to Capital that after shipping thousands of handsets to the Ethiopian market, shipping back what the local market didn’t consume to the neighboring markets is unthinkable since the investment made to import them in the first place is high. “What we have done is to hold the products primarily in Djibouti. And as demand comes from Ethiopia, we ship to Ethiopia or supplement any other country, “Levi explained.
The sixteen mobile phones models [with Ethiopic characters that will also enable users to communicate in many local languages] are expected to be available in two weeks. They include already popular Nokia models such as the 3G Nokia 6600 and 6500. These are in addition to their Nokia CDMA handsets that are expected in the market shortly. Nokia’s effort to localize phone technology has drawn local investments to the sector Levi himself was Nokia’s East Africa Account Manager.
Levi details one measure distributors would like to see the government take. This is lifting tax on handsets in order to make them affordable. As an alternative to government income they propose an airtime increment, which currently ranks as the cheapest in the region, if not the world.
