YESTERDAY, THE STAR carried a story about SIM cards for sale in downtown Kingston, with the cards, commonly called 'phone chips', being sold for far less than at the official dealerships.
What is amazing is that, as The STAR found out, the chips actually give $75 free credit, in addition to the lower cost - for Digicel, at least.
The key thing is that the people selling the items said they get them from employees of the respective companies, hence there is a serious leak inside the communications giants.
However, the question arises, is this really stealing? On the face of it, it is; the company does not get the revenue that they are due at the outset. On the other hand, the person has to buy credit from the respective telephone company, so they are contributing directly to its revenue every time they use the item.
And, chances are, the lower price will cause more people to be on the system, so that the company will end up making more money than it would otherwise.
There are times when an illegal activity does more to help than hurt a legitimate enterprise and this may just be one such case.
It is also interesting that the Digicel cards are kept in stock, unlike the Cable and Wireless units, which have to be ordered. This is a solid indication, if any was ever needed, of who is winning the 'cellie wars'. For, ironically, any item that is stolen as is the case of these cheap SIM cards is is definitely the market leader.
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