D’ARCY DORAN, Lagos | Monday
MTN will launch its GSM network in Nigeria for billed subscribers on August 8, while pre-paid subscribers will be able to join the network around August 25, company executives said on Friday.
”We really do mean business and we are ready to launch,” Brian Gouldie, chief operating officer of MTN, a subsidiary of South Africa’s M-Cell told reporters at a news briefing.
MTN is racing its rival, Zimbabwe’s Econet, to launch its network before the August 9 deadline set by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)– the regulator.
The 100_000 line capacity network will first be launched in the commercial centre Lagos, the capital Abuja and the oil- centre Port Harcourt, company executives said.
However, shares in parent M-Cell — which is itself controlled by South African conglomerate Johnnic Holdings — were off more than 10% on Friday at R14,50, amid concerns that South Africa’s new telecoms policy plans will lead to more aggressive cellphone competition.
Nigeria’s Communications Minister said earlier this week that state telephone company Nitel would only be able to provide GSM licensees MTN and Econet with 5_000 voice channels each when the mobile phone system is launched next month. Nitel is scheduled to be privatised by September.
MTN Nigeria CEO Karel Pienaar said he was unfazed by the interconnectivity restrictions.
A massive media campaign will herald the opening of its first six service centres. ”In the past two weeks Nitel has shown a commitment to invest aggressively in expanding their network,” Pienaar said.
”(Nitel’s interconnectivity) is a dynamic that is changing every day. I’m very bullish,” Pienaar said.
MTN and its parent M-Cell already operate GSM networks in South Africa, Rwanda and Cameroon.
”In all of the markets we have launched, we have never been this aggressive at the retail level,” Gouldie said. ”We really believe we are going to grow quickly.”
”It will start slowly, mostly because we will begin with post-paid customers,” Gouldie said. ”Then we will pick up the slack of the 100_000 launch capacity very quickly when pay-as-you- go launches around August 25.” – Reuters