(The Mercury via NewsEdge) Telstra has incurred a $5 million loss from a three-month mobile prepaid promotion it launched in April.
Under the handset subsidy program, the giant telecommunications firm sold Motorola V360 wireless units with SIM cards that included $10 worth of calls for a discounted price of $99.
But gray market operators purchased huge volumes of the devices and cracked Telstra's lock codes for the phones, the firm said.
The move enabled grey marketers to distribute SIM cards at less cost in local clubs and pubs and ship the cheap handsets to Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. Telstra reportedly bought about 100,000 to 200,000 of the Motorola units at $130 each for the promotion, which was aimed at boosting the company's wireless subscription base.
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