Zain Nigeria takes fixed phones to rural dwellers

Zain Nigeria, today launched its Fixed Phone or Unmanned Payphones in the North Central Region in keeping with its commitment to make telecommunication services available to more Nigerians regardless of status, location, age and income level.

Zain Fixed Phone is a special fixed wireless device designed to serve people in rural areas, universities, hospitals and other locations where access to telecom service is constrained because of high cost of handset or call tariff, or restriction in the use of mobile phones.

Customers can make calls by inserting a special SIM card into the device and dialling the numbers they want to call. Users can also send and receive SMS, retrieve voicemails, check credit balance, and send “credit me” or “Call Me Back” (Value Added Service or SMS service from Zain) using the terminal.

Speaking at an event to introduce the product to the North Central Region in Abuja, the Chief Sales Officer, Zain Nigeria, Tayo Bright, said the company introduce Fixed phone to provide more Nigerians particularly youths, rural residents and low income earners, make communication affordable, and empower more people to do their business and stay in touch with the friends and family members.

Bright, at the event, which held at the Abuja Capital International College, Gwarinpa, the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, further explained that the Zain Fixed Phone will help to eliminate entry barriers to communication resulting from high cost of handsets, call and SMS tariff and other hurdles.

In April 2008, Zain became the first Nigerian GSM network to deploy Fixed Phones or Unmanned payphones with the rollout and commissioning of the fixed wireless terminals in several locations such as the Covenant University, Ota and Redeemer University, Mowe, both in Ogun State, various villages including Awgu and Ogrute in the South East Region, and Ikom in South South Region.

The Company executive said the special SIM cards that have been introduced by Zain for use with the terminals will allow the users perform similar tasks that users of mobile handsets can perform, in addition to other benefits.

Also, users of Zain Fixed Phones can migrate to the mobile company’s offerings including its newly introduced Zain Tru Package, a stylish product designed to suit the lifestyle and aspirations, and meet the needs of youths and the young-at-heart.

With Zain Tru Package phone users can bring down their call and SMS cost significantly, dropping call tariff to 21kobo on weekends and 25 kobo during week days and lowering SMS rate to N3 for up to 10 friends and family members who must be registered for the programme.

Other benefits of Zain Fixed Phone include an opportunity to own a line on which they can receive calls, receive credit or airtime transferred to their SIM card by other Zain customers, and a chance to covert the SIM card into a regular number which they can use on their handset should they chose to own a mobile handset.

The target market of the fixed payphone includes students, travellers, low income earners, those who reside or work in locations where access to phones are either limited or restricted, and also to those who would like to take advantage of the unique benefits of the service, said General Manager, North Central Region, Zain, Dotun Babayemi.

According to him, the use of Fixed Phones comes with a number of advantages particularly, ease of use, ability to monitor calls, elimination of the inconvenience of carrying phones or handset, accurate and transparent billing, easy access to communication services, ability to call customers on other networks, make and receive calls, send SMS at anytime, among others.

The event was attended by several people including the Acting Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Information and Communication, Mrs. I.O Idowu-Omoniyi who was represented by a Director in the Ministry, Solomon Opita; the Principal of Abuja Capital International College, Mrs. Susan Gani; the Proprietress of the School, Mrs. Idris; the General Manager, North Central Region, Zain Nigeria, Dotun Babayemi; Head of Rural and Urban Market, Zain, Aderemi Amusat; Trade Marketing officer, North Central Region, Ademola Awobokun; the Public Relations Manager, Zain, Emmanuel Otokhine, and Acting Sales Officer, North Central Region, Zain, Ugonna Uzoma, among others.

ITNewsAfrica.com