Celtel spreads its coverage

New African, May 2008 by Williams, Stephen

Zain, Celtel's parent company, has announced a new initiative, together with Ericsson and the GSM Association, to save lives on Lake Victoria by extending mobile coverage.

Stephen Williams reports.

Over 200,000 fishermen work on Lake Victoria, and they will soon have the opportunity to use mobile phones to call for help if they get into trouble on the world's second largest inland lake.

Celtel, the pan-African mobile operator, together with the hardware manufacturer Ericsson, in an initiative coordinated by the GSM Association's Development Fund, have agreed to extend mobile networks across the Lake Victoria region. This, it is hoped, will fuel economic and social development of the lakeside communities and potentially reduce the number of fishing-related fatalities each year.

Zain and Ericsson are upgrading Celtel's existing infrastructure and building an additional 21 radio sites to provide mobile coverage of up to 20km into the lake. This will take about six months and ensure mobile coverage to over 90% of the fishing zones.

The project will use Ericsson's Extended Range software package to more than double the effective range of radio base stations and Ericsson's Mobile Position System, a location-based service that enables emergency authorities to locate the mobile signal of fishermen in distress.

The GSM Association and Zain are working with governments in the region and not-for-profit groups to establish a rescue co-ordination service to provide assistance to lake users, which in the longer term will be run by the East African Community's planned Regional Maritime Communications Centre (RMCC).

This initiative will help to fulfill the objectives of the East African Community's Lake Victoria communii cations strategy, adopted in 2007.

The East African countries have already been at the centre of Celtel's efforts to provide better communications for the 30 million people of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda where One Network was launched in 2006 (see New African February 2007 issue).

One Network was further expanded last year by connecting the networks of Gabon, DRCongo and Congo Brazzaville; and then, last November, adding Burkina Faso, Chad, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan.

Zain's CEO, Dr Al Barrak described the One Network expansion as a further blow against "the tyranny of roaming charges". One Network now has a footprint coverage of two-and-a-half times the size of the EU, operates in a dozen African countries and is accessible to 400 million people - approximately half of Africa's total population.

Celtel customers no longer need to carry multiple SIM cards when travelling across One Network borders, and no special SIM, registration, complicated dialling requirement or subscription is required because One Network is part of the existing prepaid or postpaid tariff plan. Celtel customers also receive incoming calls and SMS messages free of roaming charges when on the Celtel network.

Celtel has also acquired 75% of Western Telesystems Ltd (Westel) from the government of Ghana for $120m. The Ghanaian government will remain a shareholder in Westel with a 2 5% holding through the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation. Westel is the second national operator in Ghana and is licensed to provide fixed and mobile (GSM) telecom services.

Dr Al Barrak describes the Ghana acquisition as "very exciting", adding that Ghana "is one of the most important markets in Africa. We look forward to offering Ghanaians the quality telecom services that we provide in all the countries in which we operate". Celtel expects to roll out mobile services in Ghana later this year. Meanwhile, the company has refused to confirm reports that it is about to rebrand Celtel as Zain. Clearly, with half a million points of sale in Nigeria alone, changing all the signage across Africa would be a gigantic project - but one which will almost inevitably be undertaken at some point, according a senior company officer speaking to New African.