Mandalay switches to lucky draw for June SIM sale

Mandalay switches to lucky draw for June SIM sale

By Than Naing Soe and Aung Ye Thwin   |   Monday, 24 June 2013

Mandalay officials introduced a lucky draw system to sell tens of thousands of K1500 SIM cards to the public on June 20, in a move that avoided the chaos that plagued the distribution in May.

A spokesperson for the Mandalay Region government said 72,795 cards were allocated for the June release, an increase on the 65,000 and 69,395 in April and May respectively.

"In the previous two months we used a queue system but there were some difficulties so now we are using a lucky draw," the spokesperson said.

The lucky draws were conducted in front of households eligible to buy one of the CDMA 800MHz cards.

"We were instructed to announce our allocation of SIM cards to the public, to only sell one card per household and to prioritise households that have not yet got a K1500 SIM card," said the administrator of a ward in Maha Aung Myay township. "Ward administrators were told to draw lots to ensure the cards were distributed transparently and systematically."

In some wards, residents were required to give the administrator their household list and received a numbered token. If their number was drawn they were then able to buy a SIM card.

"After the draw we sold the cards to the token holders the following day," said U Win Ko, administrator of Pearl Ngwe Yaung ward in Aung Myay Tharsan township.

Translated by Thiri Min Htun

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/06/28/mandalay-switches-to-lucky-draw-for-june-sim-sale/