. . . Zain finally dissolves into Airtel
Ben Uzor Jr
Going by Nigeria’s position as the largest telecommunications market in Africa boasting of over 80 million mobile subscriptions, Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and group chief executive officer, Bharti Enterprises has stated that the success of his firm in the continent was dependent on Nigeria. Mittal who disclosed this on Friday in Lagos at the unveiling of the firm’s new identity across 16 countries in Africa, promised to deliver high quality customer benefits through the power of the global Airtel brand.
With the unveiling of the new brand identity Airtel becomes the master brand for all the group’s 19 operations in Asia and Africa covering over 200 million customers. In Africa, Airtel replaces the Zain brand and comes with the promise of delivering high quality customer benefits through the power of global Airtel brand. Earlier this year, Bharti Airtel, fifth largest telecoms company in the world acquired Zain assets across Africa earlier this year for $10 billion.
Going forward, all future new products and services will follow the Airtel brand structure. The ZAP mobile money service will be re-branded Airtel Money with immediate effect. “Nigeria is our second largest market after India. Nigeria will make or break Airtel in Africa. This is because Nigeria is the critical key for our success here. I will like to make one commitment and one request. Let me talk about the commitment first, we will make a big difference to the way this country communicates.”
“Our passion to win in the market place has not dimmed on bit. Infact, we are fired up when we see competitors who are already dominant, who are very big, it spurs us to do something special. I and the entire management of Airtel and our worthy partners, watch us and see what we will do. My request is that you embrace us, you adopt us, and this is a good brand. One thing I want to be remembered for is that this company was good for Nigeria, it was good for Africa and it was good for the human race”.
The new Airtel brand was also unveiled in Abuja at the weekend, in the presence of Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan and Mittal. At the event in Abuja, Mittal, said that the company began its African journey by promising to deliver world-class and affordable mobile services to customers and delighting them with innovative products. “I believe we are taking a major step towards delivering on this by introducing the heart of our business - the Airtel brand - across our operations in Africa. “Our African customers will now be able to enjoy the same best-in-class brand experience as our customers across India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. “We remain committed to taking our network deeper into Africa, ensuring our services touch the common man and bridge the digital divide in the continent.
“I am confident that over the coming years Airtel will win the hearts of customers across Africa and emerge as one of most admired brands of the continent”, he explained. According to the company, the “new Airtel brand comes with a promise to meet the emerging needs of customers with innovative, affordable and relevant solutions to empower consumers, giving them the freedom to do what they choose and provide them with the tools to meet life’s daily challenges.
As part of the celebration of unveiling the new brand, Airtel also announced the launch of a new ultra low cost handset package which effectively provides a mobile phone free of charge to all new subscribers. The package, launched in conjunction with Nokia, will be priced at approx N 3,500 (USD $23) and includes a brand new Nokia 1280 mobile phone, a free SIM card and the equivalent value in free Airtel talk time and SMS text messages.
In addition, Airtel promises to launch a number of leading product innovations which focus on delivering relevant information for customers to enhance their quality of life and provide tools that will help them overcome their daily challenges. In the past four months, Airtel has already made tariff interventions in 11 of its 16 markets in Africa for the benefit of its customers. The firm has also signed agreements to extend its networks to the most remote areas which are still not connected with the outside world.
For more interesting articles, check out my blog, www.benedictspace.blogspot.com
Monday, November 22, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
Competition forces telcos to reduce tariff on data services
•Internet users in for good times
Ben Uzor Jr
Going by the increasing number of undersea cables coming into Nigeria, both finance and market watchers say the nation’s highly competitive telecommunications market appears poised for a tariff war. Speaking on the development, which they already estimate will spur exciting times for internet users in the country; they told BusinessDay that most operators are spurred by the prospect of boosting revenue from internet services as voice tariffs continue to fall.
To this effect, data services has now emerged as the new ‘competition war front’ for telecoms firms. Since the liberalisation of the telecoms sector in 2001, internet access market has remained untapped while voice services thrived. For years, and until the last few weeks, the only cable system serving Nigeria’s internet needs was the South Atlantic 3/West Africa Submarine Cable - a submarine communications cable linking Portugal and Spain to South Africa, with connections to several West African countries along the route.
MainOne cable and Glo-1 have already commenced commercial services. Equally, the West African Cable System (WACS) - an initiative of nine countries (including Nigeria’s MTN Group), which comes with a high capacity submarine cable system linking Europe, West Africa and South Africa is, at the moment, under construction. Analysts who spoke with BusinessDay confirmed that some telcos are already taking advantage of the enormous bandwidth on offer from these new cable systems to lower internet tariffs, strengthen existing services and produce new solutions that promise to transform the economy.
Leading the pack in the area of pricing, meanwhile, is MTN Nigeria which has reduced its monthly Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) tariffs from N5, 000 to N3, 000. This thus rates it as the cheapest in Nigeria currently. According to Kenneth Omeruo, an internet analyst, for other telcos to stay competitive, they will have to lower their respective BIS tariffs.
This, he noted, will translate into more Nigerians getting connected to the internet at international broadband speeds and at more affordable prices. However, in a swift response, second national operator, Globacom, which has its own self-feeding submarine cable - ‘the Glo-1’, has also reduced the price of its 3G internet service by 25 percent. Now, Globacom’s internet subscribers can enjoy data limits of 6GB on its ‘Always Max Package’ for only N7, 500 from the previous price of N10, 000. Moreover, insider sources disclose that Zain is also making plans to introduce a new promotional package that would see BIS tariffs fall to as low as N1, 500 monthly.
Some GSM operators have also introduced new bundled product offering, with the pay- off being free internet service. Only recently, Etisalat and Samsung launched the Samsung Galaxy Tab, a new smart device that allows users to enjoy PC (Personal Computer) like web browsing, e-mail-on-the-go with an optimised user interface. The Tab comes with an Etisalat SIM card which offers 25 minutes of free voice calls, 25 free SMS and more importantly, 250 MB of free internet access every month for one year.
Similarly, Globacom and leading technology solutions provider, Hewlett-Packard (HP), have introduced an innovative offering that enables Nigerians to own top-end internet-equipped netbooks. Under the special bundling offer, customers can get Glo 3G powered HP netbook for N34, 000. Without doubt, data services have become the next frontier in Nigeria’s telecoms industry even as the voice segment reaches saturation point, analysts have submitted. They added that telcos would however have to pay keen attention to data services as a new revenue generating stream.
The analysts believe that even as telcos focus more on internet services due to the proliferation of submarine cables, the cost of internet access will continue to drop significantly as more bandwidth capacity becomes readily available to the market. Lanre Ajayi, president, Nigerian Internet Group (NIG), who spoke with BusinessDay at the weekend, said: “Telecoms operators are increasingly paying attention to the internet. The reason for this is that voice services is reaching saturation point. They are looking at data as a new revenue generating stream. This is also why they have rolled out their 3G and GPRS services to their customers.
What we are seeing today is not surprising to me. We are witnessing the effect of having more than one submarine cable in the country. With three cables fully active in the country, there is an abundance of bandwidth capacity available to telecoms operators. They have no options but to offer innovative data services to their subscribers at lower costs. The trend will continue and we hope when other cables berth on the country’s shores, the cost of internet access will become even more affordable and improve Nigeria’s digital index and internet penetration rate,” the NIG boss noted further.
For more interesting articles, check out my blog, www.benedictspace.blogspot.com
Ben Uzor Jr
Going by the increasing number of undersea cables coming into Nigeria, both finance and market watchers say the nation’s highly competitive telecommunications market appears poised for a tariff war. Speaking on the development, which they already estimate will spur exciting times for internet users in the country; they told BusinessDay that most operators are spurred by the prospect of boosting revenue from internet services as voice tariffs continue to fall.
To this effect, data services has now emerged as the new ‘competition war front’ for telecoms firms. Since the liberalisation of the telecoms sector in 2001, internet access market has remained untapped while voice services thrived. For years, and until the last few weeks, the only cable system serving Nigeria’s internet needs was the South Atlantic 3/West Africa Submarine Cable - a submarine communications cable linking Portugal and Spain to South Africa, with connections to several West African countries along the route.
MainOne cable and Glo-1 have already commenced commercial services. Equally, the West African Cable System (WACS) - an initiative of nine countries (including Nigeria’s MTN Group), which comes with a high capacity submarine cable system linking Europe, West Africa and South Africa is, at the moment, under construction. Analysts who spoke with BusinessDay confirmed that some telcos are already taking advantage of the enormous bandwidth on offer from these new cable systems to lower internet tariffs, strengthen existing services and produce new solutions that promise to transform the economy.
Leading the pack in the area of pricing, meanwhile, is MTN Nigeria which has reduced its monthly Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) tariffs from N5, 000 to N3, 000. This thus rates it as the cheapest in Nigeria currently. According to Kenneth Omeruo, an internet analyst, for other telcos to stay competitive, they will have to lower their respective BIS tariffs.
This, he noted, will translate into more Nigerians getting connected to the internet at international broadband speeds and at more affordable prices. However, in a swift response, second national operator, Globacom, which has its own self-feeding submarine cable - ‘the Glo-1’, has also reduced the price of its 3G internet service by 25 percent. Now, Globacom’s internet subscribers can enjoy data limits of 6GB on its ‘Always Max Package’ for only N7, 500 from the previous price of N10, 000. Moreover, insider sources disclose that Zain is also making plans to introduce a new promotional package that would see BIS tariffs fall to as low as N1, 500 monthly.
Some GSM operators have also introduced new bundled product offering, with the pay- off being free internet service. Only recently, Etisalat and Samsung launched the Samsung Galaxy Tab, a new smart device that allows users to enjoy PC (Personal Computer) like web browsing, e-mail-on-the-go with an optimised user interface. The Tab comes with an Etisalat SIM card which offers 25 minutes of free voice calls, 25 free SMS and more importantly, 250 MB of free internet access every month for one year.
Similarly, Globacom and leading technology solutions provider, Hewlett-Packard (HP), have introduced an innovative offering that enables Nigerians to own top-end internet-equipped netbooks. Under the special bundling offer, customers can get Glo 3G powered HP netbook for N34, 000. Without doubt, data services have become the next frontier in Nigeria’s telecoms industry even as the voice segment reaches saturation point, analysts have submitted. They added that telcos would however have to pay keen attention to data services as a new revenue generating stream.
The analysts believe that even as telcos focus more on internet services due to the proliferation of submarine cables, the cost of internet access will continue to drop significantly as more bandwidth capacity becomes readily available to the market. Lanre Ajayi, president, Nigerian Internet Group (NIG), who spoke with BusinessDay at the weekend, said: “Telecoms operators are increasingly paying attention to the internet. The reason for this is that voice services is reaching saturation point. They are looking at data as a new revenue generating stream. This is also why they have rolled out their 3G and GPRS services to their customers.
What we are seeing today is not surprising to me. We are witnessing the effect of having more than one submarine cable in the country. With three cables fully active in the country, there is an abundance of bandwidth capacity available to telecoms operators. They have no options but to offer innovative data services to their subscribers at lower costs. The trend will continue and we hope when other cables berth on the country’s shores, the cost of internet access will become even more affordable and improve Nigeria’s digital index and internet penetration rate,” the NIG boss noted further.
For more interesting articles, check out my blog, www.benedictspace.blogspot.com
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