Since its launch in January this year, GSM network operator Warid Telecom Uganda has signed up 500,000 customers. ‘Our commitment to provide a world class service is evident with this milestone. We have consistently upgraded and expanded our products and services to ensure maximum customer satisfaction and we owe this success to our customers, and it is the beginning of a new journey in innovation, service expansion and service excellence’, said Tushar Maheshwari, Chief Commercial Officer.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Uganda’s newest wireless network operator, Warid Telecom, has announced the launch of a new calling plan that allows customers to place calls to other Warid users and to only pay for the first two minutes of use, no matter how long the call. ‘Effective this month, the first two minutes of a phone call will be chargeable and the rest will be free,’ Zul Javaid, Warid’s country general manager, told reporters.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Ugandan wireless newcomer Warid Telecom has announced the launch of a new customer service initiative known as Warid on Wheels, or WOW for short, which will see four specially designed vans tour the country operating as mobile customer care centres. The quartet of vans will initially operate within the greater Kampala region before moving on to the Western, Eastern and Northern regions of the country. Each vehicle will sell SIM cards and handsets, deal with customer inquiries and troubleshoot any problems experienced by customers.
Warid Telecom launched its services in Uganda on 7 February 2008 and to date has rolled out a network with coverage stretching from Soroti in the east to Fort Portal in the west, and has recently launched services in Hoima and Masindi; the towns of Lira and Gulu are next in line for coverage. In its first three months of operation, Warid claims to have signed up 425,000 customers, making it the smallest of the country’s four wireless network operators, behind MTN Uganda, Celtel and Uganda Telecom.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- December 19th, 2007
- 6:32 am
India’s Reliance Communications (RCOM) has announced it has won licences which will allow it to become Uganda’s sixth telecom operator. According to reports carried by local newspapers, RCOM has been awarded both public infrastructure provider and public service provider concessions, which will allow it to offer wireless, fixed, internet, national and international long-distance services, in addition to WiMAX and Wi-Fi services. RCOM plans to launch in the east African country by the third quarter of 2008. The newspaper reports said that RCOM will invest INR8 billion (USD202 million) to roll out fixed and wireless infrastructure capable of allowing it to compete with other Ugandan operators including MTN, Uganda Telecom, HITS Telecom, Celtel and Warid Telecom.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- October 15th, 2007
- 2:44 pm
The Libyan firm Lap Green Networks has won a USD 100 million tender to buy 80 percent of the shares in Rwandatel. This is more than the USD 25 million Terracom, an American firm which previously managed Rwandatel, was to pay the government for the same company. The company also promises to invest USD 317 million to re-start the telecom sector in the country. The investment will run over a period of over 15 years and see the company inject USD 87 million in the economy during its first year of running Rwandatel. The Social Security Fund of Rwanda has the remaining 20 percent stake in Rwandatel. Communication and Energy State Minister Albert Butare said the government wanted a local company to have a stake in Rwandatel to represent the interests of Rwandans. He said the cabinet awarded Lap Green the 80 percent shares in Rwandatel after it beat other bidders which included telecom giants Vodacom and Celtel. The Libyan firm has promised to operate a border-less network between Uganda’s UTL and Rwandatel. The company has a 69 per cent stake in UTL. Lap Green is owned by Libya Africa Investments Portfolio for Africa, a consortium set up to reorganize the interests of the Libyan government on the continent.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- September 27th, 2007
- 3:18 pm
Motorola has announced that it has been selected by Warid Telecom Uganda to design and deploy an 802.16e WiMAX network. Under the terms of the contract Motorola will deliver a high speed wireless broadband network, allowing Warid Telecom Uganda to quickly and cost effectively connect new customers. Initial deployment is due for completion by the end of 2007, enabling residential and enterprise voice and data connectivity services such as Voice over IP (VoIP) and virtual private networks (VPN).
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- September 18th, 2007
- 11:40 am
Warid Telecom has conducted its first call tests on its GSM network in Uganda. The test sat the operator’s head office in Kampala were conducted over fixed and mobile lines, reports The Monitor. Warid Telecom country manager Zul Javaid said the company plans to launch services “very soon”. It is currently finalising interconnection agreements with other operators. Warid aims to cover 70 percent of the Uganda population with its network when it launches commercial services. Warid was granted an operator’s licence at the end of March and said it aimed to launch services in 6-7 months.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- September 17th, 2007
- 3:41 pm
Warid Telecom, Uganda’s newest wireless licensee, has transmitted its first call, paving the way for the commercial launch of services in the near future. The calls were made between the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Minister Dr Ham Mulira, his permanent secretary Jimmy Pat Samanya and Warid Telecom Country Manager Mr Zul Javaid. Without giving the specific date, Mr Javaid said the Warid would be launched ‘very soon.’ He said the company was still finalising interconnection negotiations with the other wireless network operators. ‘Some of the things we would like to do before launch is to increase our coverage to cover 70% of the population. We do not feel it is appropriate to launch until we can provide that coverage,’ he said.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- September 13th, 2007
- 3:18 pm
Celtel International is considering a major re-branding strategy that would see it drop the ‘Celtel’ brand and adopt a completely new identity - Zain. The plan is expected to create unique difficulties in Kenya and Nigeria, where the Celtel brand is still quite new, as well as across all non-Arab operations. It is part of a long-term strategy by Kuwait’s MTC Group, which owns the mobile telephone operator, to re-invent itself through the launch of a global brand.
MTC, which has expanded significantly through acquisitions, is seeking to consolidate recent growth under one banner. “We have a new brand that will be launched as single global brand for all our operations,” Dr Saad Al-Barrak, MTC’s deputy chairman and chief executive officer, said recently. “We will start any new operation with this new global brand.”
Controversy
Controversy has already erupted over the brand name chosen. Critics feel Zain, leaked in Kuwait in early August, has limited appeal to cultures outside the Arab world. A recent valuation of MTC by analysts from investment banker Morgan Stanley found that Africa accounted for 70 per cent of the company’s fair value.
MTC Chairman, Mr Asa’ad Al Banwan , Celtel International Chairman, Mr Mo Ibrahim, and MTC Deputy Chairman & Managing Director, Dr Saad Al-Barrak. Photo by MTC
The new logo has also been described as too dark and moody. The re-branding process has reportedly begun in Kuwait and is expected to spread to other MTC-branded operations in the Middle East.
Change will come to Africa and its Celtel-branded operations from 2008. The new changes come shortly after a regional marketing blitz to announce the expansion of Celtel’s borderless mobile network to include the Republic of Congo, Gabon and Democratic Republic of Congo. The service was previously limited to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The decision to re-brand will create a costly marketing and logistical challenge for the Kenya and Nigeria operations, given that the two only recently re-branded to Celtel from KenCell and V-Mobile respectively.
The change from KenCell, which began in 2004, is yet to be completed by Celtel Kenya: Many of their telephone booths - admittedly an atrophied part of the business - are still branded KenCell. Nigeria’s switch from VMobile, which began last year, will also have to be scrapped.
A huge task
Speaking to FS during the Second Annual Connecting Rural Communities Africa Forum in Nairobi, Mr Mwaghazi Mwachofi, Celtel International Vice-President for Regulatory Affairs, confirmed that discussions on rebranding were in progress. “Nothing has been decided as yet, nothing concrete,” Mwachofi said when pressed on the matter.
“The Celtel brand is strong and powerful and re-branding is huge task.” MTC Kuwait is also expected to form a new subsidiary, MTC International, as a private company to hold all the MTC Group’s foreign assets and operations.
A newspaper report on the plan several weeks ago saw the Kuwait Stock Exchange halt trading in MTC shares pending clarification of the issues raised.
A local Arabic-language daily had reported that MTC was going to form an entity with $1.73 billion (Sh116 billion) in capital as an umbrella company under which MTC Kuwait and MTC International, called Zain, would operate.
The paper had also said the international unit would sell a stake - possibly 40 per cent or more - in an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange next year. The re-branding confirms MTC’s ambitions to become one of the biggest mobile operators in the world.
The strategy
According Al-Barrak, the company was looking for a global brand that would work from China to Gabon, in Rio-de-Janeiro and Madras, in Moscow and Iceland. Currently, MTC is looking to fill gaps in sub-Saharan Africa - for example Angola Ethiopia and Senegal - and eyeing Saudi Arabia’s third licence. The company is also making noises about moving its headquarters because of Kuwait’s investor-unfriendly laws.
“The Kuwaiti business environment repels investment and the country’s laws are not good for a financial hub,” Al-Barrak was recently quoted as saying. Kuwait has been dragging its feet on reforms to create a more transparent stock exchange.
Another Kuwaiti law imposes a 55 per cent tax on foreign investors. MTC, Kuwait’s largest publicly traded company, said last week that it could move to Dubai or Bahrain, the Gulf’s financial centres, or to Amsterdam, headquarters of its subsidiary Celtel. The firm operates in Bahrain in partnership with Britain’s Vodafone Group and acquired Netherlands-based Celtel in 2005. It has no presence in Dubai. “MTC is today thinking on the global scale… especially since Kuwait accounts for only 15 per cent of its revenue, (a figure that) will fall below seven per cent in the next two years.” Incorporated in 1983 in Kuwait, MTC now has a presence in 20 countries.
The Group is a leading mobile operator in six Middle Eastern and 14 sub-Saharan African countries providing a comprehensive range of mobile voice and data services to over 29.7 million active individual and business customers.
It operates in Kuwait and Bahrain as MTCVodafone, in Jordan as Fastlink, in Iraq as MTC-Atheer, in Lebanon as MTC-Touch and in Sudan as Mobitel. It also has 14 operations in sub-Saharan Africa as Celtel. These are Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The company has also won Saudi Arabia’s third mobile license and is expected to roll-out a network soon. The change of identity is part of MTC’s plan to re-brand its operations across all networks in line with their “three by three by three (3×3x3)” strategy.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- September 10th, 2007
- 12:32 pm
MTN South Africa will spend up to R1.3 billion to build fixed-line infrastructure throughout the country after successfully completing a pilot project between Sandton and Rosebank in Johannesburg.
MTN is entering the fixed-line space to cut operational and customer costs; offer converged fixed-line and cellular services to clients; and meet the corporate demand for internet bandwidth that Telkom is unable to meet.
The massive roll-out plans come four days after MTN Group said it was in discussions to acquire certain assets of Telkom, which is reviewing its 50 percent stake in MTN’s rival Vodacom.
MTN Group chief executive Phuthuma Nhleko said last month that the company would keep an open mind on opportunities to increase its customer base in the corporate market.
MTN has been running a pilot fibreoptic cable between Rosebank and Sandton over the past two months to link stockbroking firms and the JSE. It spent R10 million on the project.
The new 5 000km fibreoptic cable network will stretch throughout major cities and will be completed by 2009.
MTN SA managing director Tim Lowry said on Friday that the demand for data services was “placing huge requirements on our transmission network; this need cannot be met by current suppliers”.
He said MTN would consider partnerships with Vodacom or Neotel, the second fixed-line operator, to build the cable.
The partnership would be on an equal access basis.
The final costs of the cable would be determined after the tender process to identify potential suppliers of equipment was finalised in November.
Vodacom plans a R7 billion investment in building fixed-line cables over the next five years.
Since Vodacom’s plans are yet to take off, MTN is set to be the first cellular operator to become an alternative fixed-line internet data provider.
“It will be a bit of a turf war” as MTN, Vodacom and Neotel started offering the services, said Mike Brierley, the managing director of network solutions at MTN SA. He added that prices would plunge as a result.
MTN will consider whether to sell spare capacity to other players. Under its current licence, it is allowed to provide its own telecoms network for its needs and lease out excess capacity.
MTN Group has experience in the fixed-line business: it has built networks in Ghana and Nigeria and runs a fixed-line business in Uganda.
Asked why MTN was building its own network while it was in talks to acquire assets from Telkom, Lowry said that until “something changes, it’s business as usual … We will decide what to do if the situation changes.”
He admitted that acquiring an existing asset was the quickest way to enter the fixed-line market.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Warid celebrates 500,000 customers
