Essar Telecom Kenya Entrusts Yu Brand to Young & Rubicam Brands
Essar Telecom Kenya has signed a deal with Young & Rubicam Brands that consolidates all marketing communications activity behind the yu brand. Wunderman, a subsidiary of Young & Rubicam Brands, has handled yu’s digital advertising presence since it launched two years ago.
Speaking at the contract signing event, yu CEO Atul Chaturvedi commented: We expect to see our brand grow as all our communication efforts will now be consolidated under one group. Yu is a young, vibrant brand and we are looking forward to experiencing the expertise that Young & Rubicam bring to the tableâ€.
Young & Rubicam Brands Africa Chairman Chris Harrison said, We are delighted to rejoin the telecoms marketing at a time when brand equity is at an all-time low and the major players are resorting to price cuts. There is clearly a role for better differentiation in this sector and we are delighted that the senior team at yu shares this view. We believe that yu is strongly placed to be the brand of choice for a new generation of Kenyans. We are, and always have been, in the business of building great brands for our clients.â€
Essar Telecom Kenya to launch Mobile Money-Transfer Service
Essar Communications Holdings Ltd.’s Kenyan unit will initiate a mobile-phone money-transfer service in partnership with Equity Bank Ltd., the East African nation’s biggest provider of small loans.
According to Equity Bank Chief Executive Officer James Mwangi, the service to be offered by Essar Telecom Kenya Ltd., known as Yu Money, will reduce the cost of doing financial transactions.
Essar Telecom Kenya Limited (ETKL) is a unit of India based Essar Group. ETKL launched a mobile service network under the brand yu†in November 2008 in Kenya. The company has built the best network using the latest equipment ensuring clarity and reliability. The company provides services like Voice, SMS, Mobile Data, Mobile Money Transfer (yuCash), Electronic Mobile top-up (Eneza), Caller Ring Back Tones (Dunda) and MMS.
Safaricom disputes Regulator Report into Network Quality
Kenya’s Safaricom has disputed a quality of service survey findings published by the telecoms regulator last week, claiming that its own internal tests show its network is performing better than the regulator claims.
According to the company, a self-administered test undertaken using a methodology benchmarked by international standards gave it score way above what the industry regulator accorded it.
According to CCK previous reports, a countrywide Quality of Service (QoS) assessment on all the four mobile service providers gave Airtel the number one spot after it passed seven of eight parameters it used in measuring quality. Essar Telecom’s Yu brand was second, with compliance in four areas. The assessment found the quality of service offered by Safaricom and Telkom Kenya was the most wanting, with the two firms getting a score of three.
According to Safaricom chief executive, Bob Collymore, they are surprised at the timing of this announcement given that Safaricom and CCK were in discussions over the methodology used in the study.
While acknowledging that its network had issues, the company accused CCK for the poor quality network, claiming that the regulator had turned down its request for increased frequency spectrum that would increase capacity of its GSM network.
Collymore added that nonetheless, they recognize the challenges affecting our network, and they are working to ensure that all our 16 million-plus customers enjoy superior communication services.
American Tower buys Essar Group’s infrastructure
American Tower Corp. (ATC) set to fully acquire Essar Telecom Infrastructure (ETIPL) in one go cash deal.
¬The deal values ETIPL, one of independent tower companies, at an enterprise value of around US$455 million.
ETIPL has a portfolio of 4,630 wireless communications tower sites, together with a number of towers under construction. It has functions across 14 telecom circles in India. TIL is an indirect wholly owned Indian subsidiary of American Tower Corporation, a leading independent owner and operator of more than 27,800 wireless and broadcast communication sites and distributed antenna systems globally.
According to ATC, the combined portfolio will significantly strengthen the company’s unique ability and capacity to serve the wireless telecom customers enhance their network coverage, reduce the Capex and Opex and help launch new technologies like 3G and WIMAX.
This third acquisition in 15 months period demonstrates the company’s commitment to the Indian market.
Barclays Capital acted as Exclusive Financial Advisor to the Essar Group on this transaction
Safaricom full year profit jumps 44% (Africa)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A full year profit jump of 44% has been announced by Kenya’s largest mobile network operator by subscribers, Safaricom. The increase has been attributed to the rise in the revenue from data services including its mobile money transfer service MPESA.
The net income increased from KES10.5 billion a year earlier to KES15.15 billion (USD190 million) in the twelve months to March 31, 2010. 19% rise in the sales to KES83.96 billion has also been recorded.
Telkom Kenya, Zain and Essar Telecom Kenya are the main competitors of Safaricom in Africa, which is 40% owned by Vodafone. At the end of March it claimed 15.79 million customers.
Only 7 companies to bid for 3rd Mobile licence in Rwanda
Only seven companies shows interest in third mobile licence of Rawanda. According to source, relatively low interest may be to do with flaws in the tender process. Seven companies are Vitel Holdings, Larrycom For Investment, Essar Telecom, Comium Group, Celtel, Millicom, and Easymobile Communications.There has been criticism of the government’s policy of extending invitations to bid to preferred companies, and not instead having a widely advertised public tender with bidding documents made available to everyonone.
Closing date is 30 september, RURA will select the top three bidders. Final decision will be taken by the State Ministry of ICT, which will make the final decision before the end of the year.
