Developing Telecoms | African Mobile Network operators lay out some ground rules for development

17 May 2012

Events

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African Mobile Network operators lay out some ground rules for development

Tuesday, 01 July 2008 01:00

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The recent West & Central Africa Com in the Nigerian capital Abuja saw three important pan-African mobile operators staking out the ground rules for their future expansion.

Senior executives from MTN Group, Zain/CelTel and Etisalat all hinted at their future strategies - and tried setting some conditions too. In the keynote session Christian de Faria, EVP for West & Central Africa at MTN Group confirmed what we all knew already, that the group sees West Africa as one of the main areas to invest in. But at the same time he sounded a note of caution: "MTN will only invest in countries where the licensing process is transparent as well as in markets where there is a reasonable level of competition." he said.

On the subject of competition De Faria said MTN welcomes this providing it is on a level playing field. All the representatives agreed with this sentiment in public. But how far they keep to it behind the closed doors of a negotiation is a matter no one was willing to comment on.

Zain Group/Celtel was represented at the keynote by Osondu C Nwokoro from Nigeria, who explained that the group's strategy is based on a triple approach. This embraces technological enhancement, social engineering and product development differentiation. Technology and product development are fine but we are left wondering how social engineering fits into the strategy.

Etisalat group, a growing force in the region, discussed their plans to expand their presence without, however, disclosing the date of their launch in Nigeria. Quality of service was one of the recurring themes of the discussions. All operators insisted that it was one of their priorities. They indicated that they were investing heavily to improve their networks, as well as working on network sharing initiatives.

The event attracted a record attendance of over 1000 delegates from 29 countries, as well as a number of telecommunications solutions vendors showcasing their latest innovations.

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