MTN poised to maintain market lead

Accra, Sept. 23, GNA - Ms Mawuena Adjo Dumor, Corporate Services Executive of Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN) Ghana, on Tuesday said the company was poised to maintain the market lead despite the entrance of big multi-nationals into the local telecom market. She said MTN was confident that it would maintain its lead in Ghana through quality service, innovation, strategic engagements with its subscribers and commitment to national development.

Ms Dumor told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that as a member of the MTN Group, a market leader in most of its presence in 21 countries across Africa and the Middle East, MTN Ghana was fully aware of the responsibility that came with playing a leadership role in emerging markets.

She added that the company had addressed itself to the changing situations in the Ghanaian industry and was putting the necessary measures in place to consolidate its position. "We are very mindful of the fact that our leadership role in the market comes with a clear responsibility to focus on our subscribers rather than on what other operators say and do.

"We have and will continue to set trends in leveraging our strength as the top mobile telecom player in emerging markets by building on the capacity and coverage of our network, developing products and services that are relevant for Ghanaian subscribers and devoting resources to national development," she said.

Ms Dumor noted that beyond increasing the number of its cell sites across Ghana by over 1,200 in two years, MTN was also installing its own fibre optic cables to ensure that in the near future it would provide better, faster and cheaper services using a more advanced technology. MTN infrastructure and data services over the past nine months indicates that, the company had rolled out at least 492km of fibre optics cables, introduced Blackberry services, new data products for higher value customers and strategically extended its EDGE (an improved and high speed version of GSM service) deployment. As the current market leader in Ghana, with a market share of 52 per cent of all telephone subscribers, fixed lines inclusive, MTN Ghana recorded 4.9 million subscribers representing 24 per cent increase as at December 31, 2007.

Meanwhile, this year alone, the National Communication Authority (NCA) has issued licenses to Zain and Globacom, some of the huge multi-nationals in the emerging markets to start operations in Ghana. Both players have been issued with licenses to provide Third Generation (3G) services, which is superior to the 2G (GSM/EDGE and CDMA) services being offered by MTN and other players already in the local industry.

Vodafone, the world's leading communications service provider also bought 70 per cent shares in Ghana Telecom (GT), the national career, for US$900 million recently.

As at June 2008, The MTN Group recorded 74.1 million subscribers across the 21 countries it operated in, but that compares unfavourably with Vodafone's over 269 million subscribers worldwide. Document available on the GNA indicated that in South Africa for instance, where MTN is headquartered, it is second to a subsidiary of Vodafone, Vodacom/Telkom South Africa.

But, Ms Dumor said MTN believed that its unique capability to combine technical strength with social sensitivity would put it ahead of the competition and made it a true African success story.

She said besides being technologically savvy, MTN was also the leading corporate contributor to sports and entertainment as well as to education and health sectors, through the MTN Ghana Foundation. Ms Dumor added that MTN was the title sponsor of the Ghana 2008 soccer tournament, and had remained the title sponsor of the Ghana Music Awards for a number of years including sponsorship to Television realities such as Sport Academy, Project Fame and Stars of the Future. On the question of network challenges, Ms Dumor said the newly introduced MTN Zone facility had proved very effective for the company in managing call traffic, especially during peak hours between 1800hours and 2200hours daily.

She, therefore, urged subscribers, who have not registered on MTN zone, to do so for free and enjoy better network service. Asked if MTN felt threatened by the number portability facility (a service that allows subscribers of one network to cross over to another network but maintain their original phone numbers except the network code) promised by some of the new entrants, Ms. Dumor said it was in the purview of the regulator, National Communication Authority. On the question of MTN obtaining a license to run 3G services, she said, the buck stopped with the operator adding, however, that MTN would always pursue the development of products that would enhance the lives and business of its subscribers.