Zain to compete on quaity service, one network concept

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CEO-Zain (fin)
Story: Boahene Asamoah, Nairobi, Kenya.

THE Chief Executive Officer of Zain, Africa, the new owners of Westel, Mr Chris Gabriel, has said that the company’s strategy in Ghana will be to compete based on its quality service, the one-network concept and coverage quality.
In an interview, Mr Gabriel stated that these strategies were expected to differentiate its brand and penetrate the local mobile market.
He said to ensure the quality service that the Ghanaian customer was yearning for as per their research work, the company intends to ensure an 85 per cent coverage of the whole country from the northern part of the country through to the southern sector using the road network of the country.
The CEO in addition said the company would be operating on the 3-G platform network that would offer superior service to customers.
"The 3G technology platform has added value services and we hope to provide these services to the Ghanaian customers", he stated.
He said the one-network service concept was to ensure that a customer of Zain in Ghana for instance would be able to access its service in Nigeria or any part of West Africa or any part of the world where Zain has a presence with the same number.
Touching on the competitive nature of the Ghanaian mobile telecommunications service in the country, Mr Gabriel stated that "we expect rational competition", adding that "we are not going to compete on price".
He explained that price cutting in the industry would lead to price wars and the whole industry would ultimately collapse, stating that such a behaviour would not offer returns on investments for shareholders.
Mr Gabriel added that the country offered more opportunities than challenges in spite of having about six multinational mobile phone operators.
Currently, the country has four operating brands, MTN a multinational mobile phone operator, TIGO, another international brand, Kasapa, which is an affiliate of Hutchison, another multinational and One-Touch, a local brand which could soon be affiliated with the world’s leading brand, Vodafone.
Zain and Globacom are the new operators soon to begin operations. Both are multinational brands.
On the question of whether the fixed line business of Westel would be part of its business, Mr Gabriel said, " we intend to maintain these lines," and emphasised that "we are a mobile phone operator".
On the new brand role out of the company in 14 African countries simultaneously under the brand name Zain, Mr Gabriel stated that the company aimed at being among the top ten mobile operators in the world by 2011, with a projected 110 million customers worldwide.
He said the company was operating in many countries under different brand names and the new brand was to position the company in the global competition " as one unique global brand company".
Mr Gabriel stated that Africa offered tremendous opportunity for the company, and stated that over the years the company had invested over $10 billion in its operations across Africa.
"We will continue to invest in Africa to returns on our investments and to our shareholders", the CEO stated.
Zain is to begin its operations in the next few months in Ghana.