A few years back it was a luxury to have a land line telephone installed at your home and the rates were just incredibly high.

Then suddenly there was an international company called Digicel appearing in Samoa that promised to make it possible for everyone to have a mobile phone.

The Digicel company started a market campaign of international standard that Samoa never had seen before. You could suddenly read Digicel slogans on every street corner in Samoa and you could get a simple mobile phone for almost nothing.

Digital addiction

Very quickly the mobile phone become a must to have item by both young and old and top-up cards were available everywhere. Although an almost free phone, the cost to use it is rather high when you buy phone cards to feed your phone.

Clever “Free text in the night” promotions have made the young kids addicted to the phone, spending the night texting their boy friends and girl friends as non of them have money to buy a normal phone card.

Parents are hiding their phones.

Digicel crated a very clever but dangerous function on the phone called “Credit Me Credit You” which makes it possible to transfer credit from one phone to another. This function were very welcomed by the kids as they could now easily find their parents phone and transfer fresh credit over to their own.

If the kids can’t find any credit they can at least do the texting and use the phone for listening to music.

Games, Games and Games…

Samoans love games and gambling and this is a side that the Digicel company are using for their promotions. You can submit your phone number for a small phone fee and if you are lucky you will be randomly picked for a final game called “Text To Spin” where you can win anything from 100 Tala to a few thousand Tala.

Needless to say, this is a very successful game…

Digital Paradise

Next time you visit Samoa don’t be surprised when you hear a phone ringing from a coconut tree. This is just the guy picking the coconuts getting the instruction from his wife.

Loosing Money with cell phones is easy but did you know that you can earn money with your phone. I found this 18 year old high school kid who makes lots of money every day. Have a look for yourself…

Cell Phone Treasure – Make Money With Cell Phones!

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Mats Loefkvist

Hotels Samoa / Samoa Tours / Samoa Travel