MTN launches 3G enabled HTC phone to drive data usage (Ghana)
Africa’s leading telecommunications service provider, MTN has reportedly launched the MTN/Qualcomm 3G enabled HTC phone in Accra, in collaboration with Qualcomm, in an attempt to increase awareness and usage of data services, especially among business users.
According to reports, Rahul De, Chief Marketing Officer, MTN Ghana, has said that their partnership with Qualcomm to promote these HTC 3G phones ties in with their broad objective to encourage Ghanaians to tap into the benefits of surfing the internet in order to boost productivity and generally impact the socio-economic development of the country.
As per sources, De hopes this initiative will cause more users to take advantage of the wide range of data services available on the network, enhancing their mobile experience. Further, it has been reported that some services such as MTN Business provide total ICT (Information and Communications Technology) solutions to businesses and individuals along with a wide range of 3.5G services.
Vodafone Ghana Q3 service revenue rises by 32.5 percent (Ghana)
Vodafone Ghana, an operating company of Vodafone Group Plc., the world’s leading mobile telecommunications company, is reportedly the only operator in the country to introduce its own custom-made affordable mobile handsets and other devices for users in the country.
According to reports, the company has unveiled 14 of its branded handsets along with a number of different devices such as Mi-fi, Torres, Ideos and Webbox among others, in order to cater to the specific users requirements in Ghana. Further, reports suggest that Vodafone has been a pioneer in introducing users in Ghana to high-end devices such as Samsung’s Galaxy Tablet and the Galaxy SII along with the HTC Sensation.
As per sources, Evans Boake, Portfolio Manager for Terminals, Vodafone Ghana has said that they are the only telecom company in Ghana that goes to the market to look for what people want and then commission handset manufacturers to design handsets from concept in order to meet the specific needs of the different categories of their customers. He added that other telecom operators buy existing brands like Nokia and others and put their sticker on them, but they actually order the phones to be custom-made and branded Vodafone from source.
According to company reports, Vodafone recorded an increase of 32.5 percent in service revenue in the third quarter, with a major contributing factor being attributed to its value offerings, inclusive of packages on its affordable handsets.
Vodafone Ghana launches the ’138′ tariff plan (Ghana)
Vodafone Ghana has launched another tariff plan for users offering them much more affordable rates at specific times. According to reports, the ’138′ promotion launched by Vodafone offers users a discounted rate of US$ 0. 00615 per minute for on-net calls made between 9pm and 11pm and between 5am and 7am every day. Further, the scheme also offers users discounted rates of $ 0.01846 per minute for on-net calls made on weekends along with $0.04924 per minute for the rest of the week.
As per sources, Mr. Julius Owusu-Kyeremanten, Customer Value Manager, Vodafone Ghana has said that in order to activate the US$ 0.00615 per minute at night, a user would need to spend at least $ 0.30774 within the day, while to activate the $ 0.01846 per minute offer, the user would need to have spent at least $ 1.53872 during the week.
MTN Ghana, Yemen and Uganda implement International Airtime Transfers (Africa)
Africa’s leading telecommunications operator, MTN Group has reportedly begun the implementation of its International Airtime Transfer (IAT) in partnership with TransferTo, a global airtime remittance hub that interconnects mobile operators’ prepaid systems, enabling the transfer of small amounts of value in the form of prepaid mobile credits.
According to reports, the partnership will provide MTN customers access to prepaid services so as to receive airtime transfers from the TransferTo IAT network around the world. Sources suggest that currently MTN’s companies in Uganda, Ghana and Yemen have integrated their operations with TransferTo, with other MTN operators expected to follow soon.
As per sources, the airtime services will enable all TransferTo partners along with the general public abroad, to send top-ups to MTN users in Ghana, Yemen and Uganda. Further, mobile users on partner networks will be able to use their handsets to send airtime to MTN prepaid customers, while those who haven’t yet subscribed to TransferTo can do the same via its website.
Tigo Ghana reduces call rates even further (Ghana)
Tigo Ghana has reduced its on-net and off-net call rates even further ahead of Glo mobile’s launch in Ghana on 17 November 2011. According to reports, Tigo Ghana is offering customers new call rates of US$ 0.02 per minute for on-net calls and $ 0.058 per minute for off-net calls. As per sources, Carlos Caceres, CEO, Tigo Ghana has said that the new rates will replace all other promotional call rates on Tigo. He added that the many call tariff plans and promotions in the telecom market are very complex for the average phone user to understand and they make it difficult for customers to know how much they are spending.
Mr. Caceres also said that for those who were on more than one network, the several tariff plans becomes even more confusing because it is difficult to monitor the different charges for different locations at any point in time. He said the new rates Tigo had announced were straight forward and they remain unchanged for 24 hours every day, no matter the location or time of day, so customers do not have to get confused about different charges at different times of the day. The CEO has also hinted that Tigo may also be reviewing their data packages to better suit the customers’ needs.
Ghana’s mobile subscriptions cross 20 million users
According to industry reports, Tigo the second largest operator in the country, reported a subscriber base of 3,998,489 users at the end of September, accounting for 19.6 percent of the market share. Tigo has witnessed a downfall of 3.8 percent (157,574 subscribers) from 4,156,063 subscribers as at August 2011.
On the other hand, telecommunications giant, Vodafone reportedly has 3,890,083 subscribers, representing almost 19.1 percent market share. The company added almost 312,520 subscribers in the past couple of months and may soon replace Tigo as the second largest operator in the country in terms of subscribers.
The country’s total number of mobile subscriptions is at 20,419,635 accounting for almost 80.5 percent of Ghana’s population, with MTN Ghana emerging as the strongest player having 9,894,074 subscribers and representing 48.4 percent of the market share. Further, while Airtel crossed the two million subscriber mark, representing almost 11.9 percent of the market, Expresso’s subscriber base fell from 219,290 in July to 204,153 by September end, accounting for less than 1 percent of the market share.
Airtel Money to enhance mobile banking services for Airtel customers (Ghana)
Airtel Ghana has launched Airtel Money, allowing customers to use their mobile handset in place of their wallet. As per reports, Mr Luck Ochieng, Sales Director, Airtel Ghana has said that this innovative mobile service would help customers to overcome many challenges that they go through when transacting business in their daily lives. He added that the company’s objective was to make communications, banking, payments, retail, and infotainment affordable and accessible to all in Africa, especially in Ghana through Air Money. He said the company had enhanced public safety by initiating a ‘cashless society’ where one could make direct purchases with e-money instead of the actual exchange of cash from one source to another.
Mr. Emmanuel Kola, Head of Airtel Money, has reportedly said that the service was in partnership with Ecobank, Standard Chartered Bank and Zenith Bank and assured customers their money would be safe through that facility. He added that after successful registration, a customer could access the service with their pin numbers with which they could access their bank accounts. This service also allows users to transfer money from the phone to their bank account and vice versa.
MTN group may bid for Vodacom Congo’s wireless unit (Africa)
The MTN Group, Africa’s leading telecommunications provider, might be bidding for Vodafone Group’s wireless unit Vodacom Congo, as suggested by reports. Sources claim that last week MTN made a presentation to Vodacom which is owned by Vodacom Group Ltd. (51%), further controlled by Vodafone.
Vodacom has been involved in a dispute with its local partner Congolese Wireless Network SPRL regarding funding and operational structure following a capital inflow of $484 million by Vodacom. As per reports, Pieter Uys, CEO Vodacom has said that Vodacom may sell its stake to end the dispute.
Industry analysts believe that this deal could be beneficial to MTN as it would help better its operations in such a big market and strengthen its grip on the African continent. Vodacom Congo reported a subscriber base of 4.2 million at the end of March 2011.
MTN has its operations across 22 markets in Africa and the Middle East with over 150 million subscribers. The company is the market leader in Ghana controlling over 50% of the market share.
Regulator gives green signal to Helios Towers operating tower network independently (Tanzania)
The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority gives the green signal to Helios Towers Africa to grant the first license to operate a network of telecom towers across the country independently.
Apparently, this move has also substantiates the completion of Tanzania’s first tower sharing leaseback deal. In December 2010, Tigo Tanzania had sold 1,180 telecoms towers to Helios Towers Africa.
$80 million worth of cash would be paid to Tigo Tanzania upfront whilst retaining a noteworthy minority interest in the company. In addition, Helios Towers had acquired 729 towers in the Democratic Republic of Congo from Millicom which is the parent company of Tigo.
According to Charles Green, CEO of Helios Towers Africa, they are very pleased to be at the forefront of such an exciting and important new phase in Tanzania’s telecoms industry. Helios Towers pioneered independent tower sharing in Africa – this model is the best way to ensure accessibility, affordability and the highest quality of communications service through increased efficiency and competition. Also, they have seen significant success with their operations in Nigeria and Ghana while they look forward to bringing the same experience and benefits to Tanzania.
Close to 1 million customers ditch Tigo (Ghana)
Tigo Ghana contends with the loss of close to 1 million customers during the time period, February to June 2011. The data has been collected from the mobile networks and released by the National Communications Authority (NCA).
Tigo’s loss of subscriber base represents a drop of 913,191 subscribers. There were 4.136 million customers in the month of February while the figure fell to 3.223 million for the month June.
On the other hand, Tigo’s rival operator MTN boosted its subscriber base by an increase of 600,000 additional customers. MTN’s current subscriber base stands at 8.967 million in comparison to Vodafone’s 3.426 million, following gain of 544,880 customers for the latter.
The sole CDMA network operating in Ghana, Expresso experienced a loss of 6,631 subscribers in the same period. Currently, its total number of customers stands at 220,920.
