Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Cook Islands to hear proposal for new mobile phone service next week

Posted at 22:04 on 22 May, 2009 UTC

A proposal to set up a new mobile phone service in the Cook Islands will be presented to the government next week.

Currently Telecom Cook Islands, which is owned by Telecom New Zealand and the Cook Islands government, has a monopoly on mobile phone and internet services in the country.

But for the past eight months Kukicel, a rival mobile service has been lobbying the government to change legislation to allow a competitor to enter the market.

William Framhein of Kukicel says the existing services are not adequate and his company can do better.

“In terms of the cellular service, its a coverage problem number one, and secondly the cost of cellular services today is outrageous.”

William Framhein says Kukicel hopes to move into the internet market in the future as well.