Tsunami a gold mine for phone sellers
Tsunami a gold mine for phone sellers
A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post/Medan
Dicky, a sales executive at telecommunication company PT
Pasifik Satelit Nusantara (PSN), was extremely busy on Tuesday
night. He wandered around the company's office in the plush Mega
Kuningan area, South Jakarta, organizing sales along with his
office colleagues. He frequently spoke to clients using his
mobile phone.
He was not alone. Many other company employees were also busy
serving customers.
Dicky's colleague Galih was handling a client from a newspaper
who was trying to establish a connection between his satellite
cell-phone and his laptop. A security guard came in through the
front door bringing food for dinner.
Office employees were so busy that they had no time to get
their own dinner.
Other sales staff went to the Soekarno-Hatta International
Airport to pick up additional supplies of satellite cell-phones
sent from Batam. Clients kept pouring into the office until 9
p.m, including two middle-ranking military officers who ordered
several satellite cell-phones for their unit's operations in
Aceh.
The office normally closes for business at 5 p.m.
The rush began on Monday, one day after a tsunami devastated
Aceh. Dicky said that demand for satellite cell-phones sky-
rocketed with many government offices deploying staff to help
victims of the disaster in the province.
Other buyers were from big companies and relief organizations.
"I've never experienced a situation like this before," said
Galih, who has been working for the company for three years.
The demand for satellite cell-phones increased dramatically
after Sunday's devastating tsunami in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam
cut power and telephone lines across the province. All
conventional cell-phones and fixed phone lines were down.
PSN, established 13 years ago and owned partly by state-owned
telecommunication company PT Telkom, benefited from the
telecommunications failure, as it is the only company in the
country that sells and distributes satellite cell-phones.
"On Monday our office in Mega Kuningan sold 48 satellite cell-
phones. On normal days we only sell between six and eight," said
Dicky.
Similar high demand was also experienced by a cell phone
trader in Roxy Mas Mall, the most popular cell-phone trading
center in Jakarta.
"We sold 20 satellite cell-phones on Monday alone. Normally
we'd only sell several a month," said Darwis, a cell-phone
trader, who expected that demand for satellite cell-phones to be
sustained for another few days.
One buyer, Otis Dumatubun, was perplexed with the high demand
for satellite cell-phones. He had paid a deposit on Tuesday, but
the trader said that they would only hold the phone for a day.
"If you don't buy the phone by Wednesday then you will lose the
deposit," he quoted the trader as saying.
A new satellite cell-phone costs Rp 5.5 million, while a
secondhand one might cost Rp 4.5 million. Satellite cell-phone's
are not used much by the public due to the high cost of phone
calls.
A trader described that you only need dial the phone and say
one word and it will cost you some Rp 5,000 (U.S.$0.53).
Satellite cell-phone's are popular among geologists, miners and
surveyors whose jobs take them out of reach of conventional
phones. Anyone having such a phone can be contacted anywhere on
earth, whether it be the North Pole or the Sahara.
With its broad coverage a satellite cell-phone has become one
of the most sought after items by people involved in disaster
relief efforts in Aceh province.
Dicky was happy with the sales bonanza, but quickly added: "We
hope the disaster will be the last. We hope such a thing will
never hit our country again."