Mobile providers scramble for turf in Africa

As the battle for control of regional markets intensifies, African mobile service providers are now scrambling to offer roaming services in neighboring countries as well as Asia and the Middle East.

Pan-African mobile service providers such as Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN) and Zain are scrambling to service markets in the region and beyond at reduced tariffs to attract and maintain customers by helping them avoid the hassle of changing numbers each time they travel to other countries.

The companies want subscribers doing cross-border trade in the region, the Middle East and Asia to remain connected to their networks and be able to call back home through roaming services at reduced tariffs, rather than changing SIM cards or numbers.

In addition to the roaming service, MTN is also providing mobile Internet service that allows customers to browse the Internet through their mobile phones at reduced rates.

African customers always prefer to maintain the same contact numbers when they travel for business, but the absence of roaming services by service providers made it difficult for them to maintain their numbers across borders.

Patrick Kariningufu, CEO of Rwandatel, a Rwandan mobile service provider, said, "the company will by April this year provide roaming services with telecom companies in 70 countries."

Rwandatel is currently providing roaming services in Uganda with Uganda Telecom and in Libya with Al-Madar.

The company is also testing the roaming service with Safaricom in Kenya and is about to start testing the service with Tanzania's Vodacom.

However, all these countries are already being serviced by Zain, which has a presence in many African countries through its borderless network introduced two years ago. Zain's borderless network services the East Africa and Southern African region. Zain claims it is still pushing to capture new regional markets with the borderless network roaming service.

Rwandatel is also expanding its roaming services to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania, Burundi and Kenya, according to Kariningufu.

MTN of South Africa, which operates in more than 16 countries in Africa, is also targeting to cover about 21 countries across Africa, the Middle East and Asia under its One World platform.

MTN said it is targeting more than 600,000 subscribers by the middle of this year and double the number by the end of the year due to the cheaper customized handsets the company is selling to attract customers. MTN's preferential roaming tariffs offer lower rates for travelers and also allow customers to enjoy free incoming calls.

Rwandatel is also targeting Asia and the Middle East, among regions outside Africa. Once the program is rolled out in all 70 countries, Rwandatel will have a coverage wider than that of MTN, according to Kariningufu. The Middle East and Asia regions are Africa's active business destinations.