Roaming - one nation success

Celtel says scrapping roaming charges boosted business

Mobile carrier Celtel, which operates a network without roaming charges across 12 African countries, has seen increased usage make up for the loss of roaming revenue, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

"I won't quantify it, but it is a positive business case, it is something that is adding value," Chris Gabriel, chief executive of Celtel, a unit of Mobile Telecommunications Co (Zain), told Reuters.

"We are starting to win more and more global accounts because they can see the value in this, they can optimise their costs ... we are landing some very serious corporate accounts," he said on the sidelines of the ITU Telecom Africa conference in Cairo.

Celtel's example differs sharply from European carriers who continue to charge roaming fees to their customers, even where the foreign network is owned and operated by the same company.

European telecoms groups also last year fought hard, but ultimately unsuccessfully, to keep the European Union from imposing lower roaming charges.

Celtel's "One Network" covers most of its African operations and includes countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria and Sudan.

Customers from one country can make calls and send text messages at local rates, receive incoming calls for free, top up with scratch cards bought at home or abroad and continue to use their home network's services such as voicemail or Blackberry email, the company says.

Gabriel said Celtel would be the growth engine of parent company Zain, which has a stated ambition to break into the global top 10 of mobile communications companies, and would remain on an expansion course, including through acquisitions.

"We will be looking at anything that fits within our footprint, fits within our strategy and makes good business sense," he said. "Governments are actually approaching us now and asking us to come and take licenses in their countries."

Gabriel said the company was looking seriously at introducing third-generation mobile networks in three to four markets in the short term, in areas where there was demand for mobile data.

"We are looking at 3G on a market-by-market basis," he said. "You don't need 3G, the service, in rural markets ... you can concentrate licenses for 3G in particular areas, where there is need for data."