:::Technology Times Newspaper

By Benjamin Amu

Lagos. September 4, 2008. Mobile phone company, Visafone Communications Limited, has crossed a milestone one million subscriber mark after its market entry in first quarter of this year.

Visafone, founded by MD/CEO, Zenith Bank PLC, Jim Ovia, made a remarkable entry into the marketing following the purchase of three private phone companies, Cellcom, ITN and Bourdex to form a mega network offering national mobile telephony services.

MD/CEO of Visafone, Ninan Thomas, says that plans are underway to employ an additional 5000 Nigerians to forge ahead with the company’s plans to sustain its aggressive and exponential growth, in a statement to Technology Times.

While the mobile GSM networks control a huge share of the nation’s telecoms market, mobile CDMA players have in the first half of the year shown increased aggressiveness in national roaming, marketing and expansion activities.

According to official subscriber data obtained from telecoms regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), overall active lines in the nation’s telecoms market peaked at a mid-year mark of 53.3 million lines. While the mobile GSM sector accounts for 49.6million lines, the mobile CDMA sector accounts for 2.1million lines and the fixed wired/wireless sector accounts for 1.6millions.

However, it also reflects that within the period of Visafone’s entry into the mobile CDMA market, that market segment recorded the most appreciable growth from 384,315 lines at year-end 2007 to 2.1million at mid-year 2008 driven largely by increased uptake of their services by subscribers seeking lower call rates than applicable on mobile GSM networks.

Thomas adds that Visafone recorded another first when it launched commercial operations in 12 states and over 40 cities across the six geo-political zones of the country from launch owing to its unique market entry strategy.

The coverage area has grown to cover 17 states, over 150 towns and slightly over one million subscribers, underlining the company’s aggressive and exponential growth, says Thomas who adds that plans are underway to employ an additional 5000-man workforce within the next five years to actualise this vision of promoting the socio-economic growth and alleviating poverty in Nigeria.

Ovia’s buy of three companies, fused to create one network, is considered the most significant entry strategy in the evolution of the Nigerian telecoms market driven largely by the private sector and has witnessed increased activities from CDMA mobile companies after the five-year mobile exclusivity granted GSM mobile networks lapsed in 2006.

The banker’s latest foray into telecoms was also to renew hope of local participation in telecoms, the commanding height of which has largely been dominated by foreign investors, that have with increased consolidation of the market, been acquiring smaller players.

With diverse stakes in various ICT endeavours, Ovia is generally regarded to have launched Visafone as a fulfilment of his passion for the industry and other charitable causes that have placed him in the vanguard of ICT development in the country.

Ovia currently serves as Chairman, Nigeria Information Technology Advisory Council (NTAC), was former President of Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) and was among the first set of Nigerians to introduce internet into the country in 1996 through the licensing of Cyberspace Limited, an Internet Service Provider (ISP), among others.

Within the market, Visafone’s phenomenal growth is regarded as significant having set a new record as the Nigerian telecom company with the fastest roll-out as it commenced operations in just six months.

The company, which was recently named ‘Best Telecom Brand of the Year’ at the Nigeria Telecom Awards also, offers an array of value added services, which create convenience and the joy of communication to its subscribers. Products like Visa Tones, Visa Mobile Office, Mobile Chart Service, Web Pay Services, Credit transfer, branded Share your Visa, RC Data Pay, Prepaid Internet are available on the Visafone network.

“The company has made telephony very affordable to all Nigerians with its low priced handsets and very affordable tariff regime for both local and international calls. This has resulted in great savings to Nigerians who now enjoy longer talk time. Visafone provides the lowest on-net tariff of 10 kobo/second and the lowest on net SMS of N5 per SMS. Visafone believes in the empowerment of the Nigerian populace, demonstrated by the creation of a package for the Commercial Telephone Operators which ensures maximum profitability and independence. Little wonder the company was recently awarded the Brand of the year”, adds Thomas.

In March 2008, a consortium of banks provided a syndicated loan of USD250 million to Visafone, a facility that was injected into a network upgrade for its 3G Rev A service, drive an aggressive national rollout of its service bouquet and building backbone infrastructure.

Thomas says that “these will reinforce quality of service, speedy rollout and excellent voice and data to Nigerians who are already very pleased with the network.”