Leadership change in Vodafone Albania (Europe)
Haris Broumidis, Vodafone Albania’s CEO since November 2007, moves by early April 2012 to Vodafone Group Headquarters in London as Commercial Director for Europe. In this new role, he will be responsible for accelerating the implementation of Vodafone’s commercial priorities in the European markets, including Albania.
Haris Broumidis commenced his co-operation with Vodafone in 2002 and served successively as Marketing Director and Enterprise Business Unit Director at Vodafone Greece, while the last four years under his leadership enabled Vodafone Albania to become the undisputable leader of telecommunications market in the country.
Dietlof Mare has been appointed new CEO for Vodafone Albania. During his career he served for four years as CEO of Vodacom Tanzania and prior to that managed the Vodacom business in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Vodacom records 4 million new subscribers in Tanzania (Africa)
Vodacom Tanzania has claimed that it has added over 4 million customers in the past year and plans to spend about $94 million over the next one and a half years to expand network and data services, according to a report by Reuters.
Rene Meza, managing director, Vodacom Tanzania, has said the increase in users came from new customers joining its M-Pesa money transfer service, which has an 85 percent share of the total mobile commerce transactions in the country.
Meza said that they added over 4 million customers in one year, with M-Pesa acting as the biggest driver for such a growth.
Further, Meza revealed that Vodacom Tanzania had invested over US$ 627.5 million over the past decade to make it the biggest mobile operator in the country. Also, they have very ambitious plans for expansion; with the next 12 to 18 months seeing an investment of US$ 94.1 million for network coverage expansion.
The mobile internet penetration in Tanzania is no more than 3 or 4 percent as compared to the 15 percent in neighbouring country Kenya, so there is tremendous opportunity for growth. Meza said just a third of the 42 million people in east Africa’s second largest economy were connected to mobile phones.
The report reveals that communications is the fastest-growing sector in Tanzania, accounting for 20 percent of gross domestic product. Other major players in Tanzania’s mobile phone industry are Bharti Airtel, Millicom’s subsidiary Tigo Tanzania and Zantel.
Meza said inflation and exchange rate fluctuations were pushing up costs. He said the company paid its frequency fees to the mobile sector regulator in U.S. dollars while it charged users in shillings.
Meza said he does not expect further reduction of mobile phone tariffs in the country after a fierce price war in the past few years stifled new investments in the sector.
NSN bags Vodacom Tanzania network deal
Nokia Siemens Networks has won a five-year deal to manage telecom network of Vodacom Tanzania.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed, but the companies stated that they are aiming to reduce operating costs, improve efficiency, save energy and offer competitive tariffs to customers of Vodacom Tanzania.
They added that as a part of the agreement, 124 Vodacom Tanzania employees will transfer to Nokia Siemens Networks.
New billing system for Vodacom to be deployed by NSN
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A unique charging and billing system will be supplied by Nokia Siemens networks (NSN) to Vodacom Tanzania under the contract signed between them. As per the agreement, the pre-paid subscribers of the telco could benefit from the same promotional campaigns and value added services (VAS) as their post-paid counterparts, and vice versa.
The solution will be deployed the basis of ‘charge@once unified’ software allowing what it calls ‘predefined marketing scenario’s to be activated on demand.
A range of state of the art technologies for voice, data, leased lines, PABX connectivity, international connectivity, WiMAX solutions, remote communication solutions over satellite and banking solutions has been deployed by Vodacom Tanzania, country’s leading cellular network operator by subscribers.
Telco’s to enlist on country’s stock exchange- Tanzania’s parliament
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A new telecommunications bill has been passed by Tanzania’s parliament making it mandatory for all mobile network operators to list on the country’s Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE).The move has been cited as a retrograde step for the industry and has been facing vocal criticism from the firms.
According to Vodacom Tanzania’s head of legal and regulatory affairs, Mr Godwin Ngwilimi, the bill takes the country back to the era of nationalization when individuals were forced to sell their companies or shares to the government.
However, the government considers the bill justified in the wake of opeartor’s unfair treatment of end users and their withholding of billions to the state by way of taxes. If the bill is passed and becomes a law, domestic telcos will be forced to offer shares to the public and will also be required to list with the DSE within three years of it entering the statute.
HSDPA Switched on in Tanzania
Vodacom Tanzania says that it has switched on its 3G HSPDA network in Dar-es-Salaam. With the installation of a 3G HSDPA network, Tanzania is only the second country in Africa with such technology, the first being South Africa.
“Vodacom is the first in East Africa with such technology and we believe that 3G HSDPA will give us a major competitive advantage,” Vodacom Tanzania Managing Director Romeo Kumalo, said from his office in Dar-es-Salaam.
“3G technology is an important step forward for Vodacom, as the telecommunications industry enters a new era in mobile communications. Vodacom is rapidly and dramatically changing the way its customers experience their wireless communications. It is also shaping the future of mobile and broadband internet communications through its continued leadership in wireless technology,” he added.
The 3G HSDPA network commercial launch is scheduled for the first quarter of 2007.
