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Cellplus Ltd History

Cellplus Mobile Communications Ltd, a subsidiary company of the Mauritius Telecom launched its cellular network on the 1^st October 1996. The company uses the world`s leading edge technology developped in partnership by telecommunication giants of Europe and adopted other leading telecommunications operators throughout the world.This technology is based on the Global System for mobile Communications,GSM 900Mhz.The system is utilised by over 290 operators in more than 120 countries and around 80 million customers.

It has facilities that allows foreign customers to use their GSM phones while in Mauritius.The first models of GSM phone in use in Mauritius used a single SIM card that is used for to the network, it uses a chip for identification of user & connection to the network.Payment is made through monthly bills. So each user gets only one chip for lifetime use unless the chip is damaged then it is replaced.

The latest GSM phone, the Complis GSM introduced in Mauritius in 2nd November 1999 use the Complis SIM card chip and a Complis Scratch card, the Complis Scratch card is a plastic remote memory cellphone card. The first SIM card came in a kit with a free Scratch card (plastic remote memory cellphone card) of Rs125, this Scratch card has the distinguishing design of having slightly different colour at the front & a code bar at the back while the back design is in vertical position.. This model also uses only one chip from the Complis SIM card which is used for lifetime like the older model. But payment of calls is made through the prepaid Complis Scratch cards which are issued in the values of Rs125, Rs250, Rs500, Rs1000.

The smallest value Complis Scratch card Rs125 has been put on sale at the same date, this version of the Complis Scratch card Rs125 has no code bar at the back, it is issued in larger number than the one that comes with the kit. The other values Rs250, Rs500, Rs1000 has been put for sale on December 1999.

The following Complis SIM card for GSM portable phones has the Beaches design & there are no free prepaid Rs125 card with it. The SIM card has an inbuilt memory of Rs125 phone calls.But after being used up one has to refill one`s account with a remote memory Complis Scratch card. All Complis scratch cards were made from plastic but from around October 2000, Complis scratch cards are made from paper.For the moment only the Rs125 face value is made from paper. I guess that after its stock of plastic Scratch cards having larger face values is used up,all the reissued cards will be made from paper.

April 2003 Cellplus has opened a Cellular network in Rodrigues island, called Cell-Oh!. Rodrigues island belongs to Mauritius, it has an area of 104 sq kms (1/18th of the size of Mauritius) & it has a population of 35 000 inhabitants ( less than 3% of the population of Mauritius) it has a decreasing tendency as more citizens move to Mauritius. The island is 560 kms to the north East of Mauritius. The island depends on farming, fishing & agriculture & just recently has a small tourism sector. It does not have any industries. The designs of gsm recharges of Cell-Oh! is unique to the island, and as it has a very small population, it is obvious that the mintage of the cards is very tiny compared to Mauritius. So its cards are really very interesting for collecting purposes, being very very small in number. The face values of the gsm recharges are different from those of Mauritius, being Rs100 +VAT, Rs200 +VAT, Rs400 +VAT. VAT (Value Added Tax is at the rate of 15% actually)

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Last update 11 May 2004

Joseph Wong Keng Yuen, 22a,Tamarind street, Roche Bois, Port Louis, Mauritius. Tel: (230) 242 4187.