Etisalat, Nigeria’s fifth GSM operator, estimates it will make a monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) of about 10 dollars from its Nigeria operations which kick off commercially next week.
Mohammad Omran, Etisalat Group’s chairman, gave the projection while speaking at the company’s headquarters in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.
He was addressing journalists at the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition and Conference (Gitex) holding in Dubai.
The Middle East ICT exhibition where he highlighted his company’s expectations from and focus on the Nigerian market is tagged Gitex.
Outlining his company’s expectations from its Nigeria undertaking, Omran observed that ARPU levels in Nigeria were higher than in many other African countries and that by its operation in Nigeria Etisalat was “gaining a strategic foothold in Africa’s most exciting market.”
He observed that Nigeria’s nearness to Etisalat’s other operations in West Africa and the Sudan made for enhanced connectivity options and increased the Nigerian network’s resilience, allowing it to access competitive services from Etisalat’s carrier and wholesale division.
“We are confident that our Nigerian operations will grow quickly, especially with the low penetration, large population and strengthening economy,” he said.
He stressed that Etisalat’s coverage in Nigeria would be wide spread at launch reaching major population centres and would quickly spread and encompass the entire country, including the under-served hinterland.
This is one of the benchmarks on which Etisalat is renowned in every country in which it operates, he added.
Etisalat’s network in Nigeria is at the final stages of testing prior to public launch. “We are now preparing for commercial launch, which will come soon,” Omran stated.
Competition, Omran said, “creates a healthy environment for the businesses involved, as well as for the customer and when we enter a new market we offer services and telecommunications solutions based on intensive studies and market research relying on our experience as well as the expertise of our long-term partners.”
He said the network’s competitive edge would be its emphasis on customised services tailored at the needs of specific audiences.
Etisalat is one of the major sponsors of the Gitex event in Dubai where it is showcasing a number of innovative services and products which officials say will be made available to the Nigerian market.
They include an enhanced mobile TV which provides about 20 channels. The service allows both prepaid and postpaid customers to view the selected television channels live on their 3/3.5G enabled handsets. It also offers mobile broadband on High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) platform with speed levels from 2MB to 10GB.
Other services which Etisalat hopes to introduce to the Nigerian market include voice SMS, Etisalat online services, Mobilecam, a wireless camera that can be placed anywhere and accessed from 3G enabled mobile phones.
Business Day
