The President of the Maldives to the rescue!

Mundhu, the Spokesperson to the President of the Maldives has sorted it.

I had a continuing nightmare over the last week and a bit with my prized ‘private mobile network’ test unit from Teleware stuck in Customs at Male Airport, here in the Maldives.

The nightmare, it turns out, is all of my very own making.

Yes. Totally my fault.

If I’d notified the Maldivian Government that I was coming, I’d have sailed through Customs with the unit. The trouble is, up until now, I’ve not been entirely sure how to do notify the Government. I spoke to the UK Maldives Embassy a few times prior to departing the UK but that was only to ask advice about whom to speak to. They suggested I talk to the Telecoms Ministry regarding permission. I tried… but didn’t get a response.

I should have emailed the UK Embassy with my details and made it clear what I was planning on doing and when I was arriving. My bad.

I talked to H&K. Although they no longer work with the Maldives Government, they have good contacts. Gaylene talked to Tim who sent me Mundhu’s details.

I sent off a text to Mundhu with my issue and received a call from him 120 seconds later.

“Send me the details and I’ll sort it,” he said.

Obviously I feel rather stupid for not notifying the Government. Communication, eh? That’s the whole basis of SMS Text News! Chalk that up as a learning experience.

Gahh. If only I’d done this a few days ago, eh?

Hopefully the item should be released from Customs today or tomorrow and I’ll see if I can get it shipped over here to the Conrad Hotel for Sunday. That’ll give me a day or so to test it out on the island before I head back to boring London.

Thank you Mundhu and thank you Mr President!