Thursday, 26 March 2020 – Apia, PR – Digicel Samoa Ltd, has offered support for it’s customers during the COVID-19 State of Emergency.
As a result of the Government national order, most of the businesses and all schools have been temporarily shut down as well as other modes of public transportation in an attempt to limit public gatherings and physical contact.
Communications is a key component in our everyday lives, for businesses and schools whom have adapted a work-from-home type approach during the two week State of Emergency.
Digicel is working closely with the Government and the necessary Ministries to prioritise communications for essential sectors, namely Education and Health. In this respect, customers and the public alike are advised to exercise patience and understanding at times of network congestions as priority is given to essential services sectors.
Digicel CEO, Mark Witthuhn says, “We are doing our part as an essential service in the telecommunication sector to assist our Samoan community during this time. Digicel strives to seek communication that is simple and centered around our customers and their digital needs. We want our customers to continue communicating with their loved ones with our Cheehoo bundles which has great value with unlimited texts and minutes as well as more data that can be used for social messaging or staying updated digitally with what’s happening around us. A simple check-up on family and friends and communicating that everyone is ok is very important at this stage”.
“Amidst the global pandemic, of critical importance is our education system at a halt. In the tertiary level, it can be stressful especially for students at the brink of the most important years of their academic life. We have worked with key stakeholders likes NUS and USP to allow free access to all the necessary sites for both the students and teachers to access so they can continue studies as usual online with our student sim offers. Moreover, as a country, information is key during these times. Government directives and communications are of great importance to avoid misinformation and false guidance. In this regard, we have made the essential services where official communications will be channeled also free of access for the wider public. This includes key websites like the World Health Organisation, Ministry of Health and more”.
Digicel strongly encourages its customers to make use of the available offers to stay updated, safe and connected during this time. Further details of the student sim offers and other assistance Digicel Samoa launches are listed as follows.
Tertiary Student Sim Offer:
- In efforts to ensure the tertiary students are able to continue their studies, free access to all necessary websites required for the classes are made available on special student sims, to allow students and teachers alike to continue learning remotely. The special student sim has two available options where the free access is triggered upon top up. Specifically, any top up from five tala to nine tala ninety nine sene ($5 – $9.99) is made, 2.5GB of data will be added as bonus, the person will still have the amount of credit available to use in addition to the free access to the websites. Any top up of ten tala ($10) or more provides 5GB of bonus data, free access to the websites with the full credit amount to be used at the person’s discretion. Both options once claimed, are valid for use for the 30 days from time of top up.
- The Links that students will be able to access using for free with the use of the student sims are listed as follows:
- MESC – https://mesc.gov.ws
- Google – https://scholar.google.com
- Samoa Knowledge Society – https://samoaks.ws
- NUS: http://maril.student.nus.edu.ws
- NUS: https://mail.google.com/a/nus.edu.ws
- NUS Moodle: https://nusmoodle.ws
- NUS: https://onlinestudy.nus.edu.ws
- NUS: https://www.nus.edu.ws
- USP: https://elearn.usp.ac.fj/
- USP: usp.ac.fj/alafua
In addition to the student sim for tertiary level students, Digicel is also working alongside other key stakeholders like Ministry of Education Sports and Culture (MESC), Ministry of Communications Information and Technology (MCIT), Samoa Information Technology Association (SITA) to support a Digital Education Plan and Delivery Strategy providing for the rest of the education sector.
Official government channels:
- In ensuring all official communications are made available to the wider public, Digicel is allowing free access to all necessary Government websites and links where official communications are updated. Any Digicel customer will be able to access these websites and links for free and any data or credit related charges will not apply. Relevant list of websites are as listed as follows:
- Government of Samoa – http://www.samoagovt.ws/
- World Health Organization – https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-voronavirus-2019
- Ministry of Health – https://wwwhealth.gov.ws
- DMO – https://www.mnre.gov.ws/about-us/divisions/disaster-management-office/
- MESC – http://mesc.gov.ws
- SFESA – https://www.sfesa.ws
- Police – https://www.samoapolice.ws
All Digicel business and corporate customers will be contacted directly for assistance with accounts.
For further clarifications on any of the information above, please call 123 from Digicel numbers and 7720000 from other networks.
