COMPANY PROFILE
2015
AIRTEL AFRICA
+254 733 1001 00 | www.africa.airtel.com
Helping customers connect Editorial: Rosie DeWinter
Providing affordable and innovative mobile services to all its customers, Airtel Africa is a subsidiary of leading telecommunications giant, Bharti Airtel Ltd who has operations spanning Asia and Africa in 20 countries. Promising unrestricted talk time and uninterrupted services, Airtel Africa is now looking to meet the ever growing needs of its customers across the African continent. In June 2010, the Indian telecommunications company, Bharti Airtel Ltd spent an estimated $9 billion to become a global firm, purchasing Kuwait-based Zain Group’s telecom assets in 15 countries
PAGE 2
in Africa - taking on a staggering $8.5 billion in debt in the process. A leading global telecommunications company headquartered in New Delhi, India, it was reported that Bharti
Airtel Ltd had over 277 million customers across its operations at the end of September 2013. It now ranks amongst the top four mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. The company’s product
AIRTEL AFRICA offerings in India include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, high speed DSL broadband, fixed line services, IPTV, DTH and enterprise services including national and international long distance services to carriers. In the remaining countries it operates in, Bharti Airtel offers 2G, 3G wireless services and mobile commerce. Driven by a vision to provide affordable and innovative mobile services to all, Airtel Africa, headed up by long-time Mittal lieutenant Manoj Kohli, is now active in: Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. It operates a GSM network in all countries and provides 2G, 3G or 4G depending upon operations. When Bharti Airtel made the decision to venture into Africa, it set a target of acquiring 100 million subscribers, up from 42 million at the time of acquisition. $5 billion in revenue, up from $3.6 billion and $2 billion of Ebitda by March 2013 - less than three years after the acquisition. Ebitda is a measure of a company’s profitability and refers to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
ONE NETWORK Since Bharti Airtel’s acquisition, Airtel Africa has updated its roaming services, introducing flat and affordable rates for its customers who are travelling across countries within the
Airtel Africa network. One Network - the mobile phone network - allows Airtel customers to use the service in a number of countries but at the same price as their home network, enabling customers to place outgoing calls at the same rate as their local network with free incoming calls. From 2014, this service is now available in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Chad, DRC, Congo Brazzaville, Gabon, Ghana, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. In July this year, the Government made a call for the ICT sector to play a more prominent role in economic growth of the region – in an attempt to introduce communication across borders at reasonable rates, whether on the same or different networks. Just three months on and Airtel Kenya announced it was offering a flat rate for roaming across Africa in October – providing a flexible and simple tariff within the Airtel Network footprint for its customers. In terms of pricing, customers can now roam in sixteen Airtel Africa countries with the added extra of being treated as local customers on the visited network. Providing a simple tariff within Airtel’s footprint, the new offer also hopes to enhance customer experience. Airtel Kenya customers travelling to Madagascar, for example, will enjoy up to 85% discount when making calls back to Kenya at Ksh 35 down from Ksh. 227.30 per minute. Airtel Kenya customers will be charged Ksh
12 while making calls within Madagascar down from Ksh 37 per minute. Receiving calls while roaming will still remain free of charge for the first 100 minutes a month and sending an SMS message will cost just Ksh.17 with incoming SMS’ remaining free. This new flat rate is included in Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Seychelles, DRC, Gabon, Congo, Niger, Tchad, Burkina Faso and Madagascar. In an effort to enhance regional integration, changes in the tariffs within Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda were part of an agreement by the heads of state of three East African countries in a further bid to reduce crossborder calling rates by up to 60%. The new offers have helped to improve communication and stimulate growth within the telecommunications sector an important contributor to a country’s GDP. Airtel Kenya CEO, Adil El Youssefi said: “Airtel Kenya is delighted to have taken the lead yet again in offering the best value proposition, convenience and seamless communication for our customers when they travel to any of Airtel Africa’s fourteen networks. With ‘One Airtel’, roaming has never been easier - or more affordable to keep connected to family, friends and colleagues. We have launched this preferential roaming service to ensure that our customers fully benefit from the advantages of Airtel’s presence across Africa, ensuring savings in communication costs for our travelling customers.”
PAGE 3
MAXIMISING BENEFITS Ghana’s fastest growing telecommunications network in voice and data providing Airtel Ghana provides innovative and cutting edge solutions to meet the communications, connectivity and collaborative needs of its customers. In a continued effort to provide unmatched telecommunications and banking services to enhance and transform the social and professional lives of its valued customers, the company entered into a strategic partnership with First Atlantic Bank Limited in October
PAGE 4
this year. Providing synergy between Airtel Premier, a subsidiary of Airtel Ghana, and Atlantic Purple Plus customers, the partnership will customers allow access to integrated telecom and banking products and services – not to mention providing a wealth of convenience through the exclusive delivery of services, products and rewards. It is hoped that Airtel and First Atlantic Bank’s unique partnership will open a world of exciting rewards for the bank’s Private Banking customers and Airtel’s Premier customers.
While the Atlantic Purple Plus Account is the distinctive banking service for First Atlantic Bank’s private banking customers, Airtel Premier offers an array of telecom and lifestyle products, services and rewards for its highly valued customers. “Through this partnership, we are redefining telecommunications and banking services by giving our customers more reasons to be on Airtel,” explains Lucy Quist, Managing Director at Airtel. “Our Premier customers and Atlantic Purple Plus account holders have the opportunity to
AIRTEL AFRICA enjoy exclusive rewards such as access to over 700 VIP airport lounges worldwide through our priority pass service; access to the Adinkra Lounge at Kotoka International Airport with free Wi-Fi services, discounts from brand partners including hotels, automobile companies and restaurants.
“With our recent affordable internet-enabled phone offering together with free web access, our customers are in for a feast of information, education as well as the best experience on the Airtel network” “Our suite of lifestyle products and services are ever expanding and no matter your lifestyle choices and peculiar preferences, Airtel Premier has a service for you, now is the time to join the most loved telecom brand in the daily lives of Ghanaians,” Quist adds. “Airtel’s Premier customers can now enjoy preferential rates for facilities, interest bearing Atlantic Purple Plus accounts, free access to exclusive Private Banking lounges in selected branches, higher limits on ATM withdrawals and Personal Life, Travel and Health Insurance at a
discounted premium, exclusive lifestyle benefits, discounts, promotions and offers. Similarly First Atlantic Bank’s Private Banking customers will also benefit from all the packages available to Airtel Premier customers,” Mr Gabriel Edgal, Managing Director and CEO at First Atlantic Bank explained.
FACEBOOK PARTNERSHIP In partnership with the global social media giant, Facebook, Airtel Rwanda introduced free web access to Facebook and launched Freebasics.com in September this
year for Airtel Rwanda customers. Using the Airtel network, Airtel Rwanda customers will have free internet access on selected websites through Free Basics by Facebook including BBC Africa, SuperSport, Inyarwanda. com, Wikipedia, BabyCenter & MAMA, Dictionary.com and Bing search engine, amongst others. Customers will also have access to a set of free services within the categories of health, education, communication, sports, jobs, as well as local information. Free Basics by Facebook
WE BUILD TO LAST
H.B.C PLAYS A BIG ROLE IN THE AREAS OF
BUILDING, TELECOMMUNICATION, AND INFRASTRUCTURES MAINTENANCE WITHIN MADAGASCAR FANANTENANA RAOILISON Mobile: +261 330 732 522 Skype ID: fanantenana4 Email: fanantenana@hbc.mg
WWW.HBC.MG
PAGE 5
will be available as a mobile browser version for feature phone users on the web address: www.freebasics.com. It will also be available as an Android app for smartphone users who will be able to access it on Google Play store. Commenting on the new development, Mr. Tano Oware, Airtel Rwanda Finance Director & Acting Managing Director said: “We are delighted to kick off this partnership with © xxx Facebook and have it go live at a time where we as a telecom are looking to enable
PAGE 6
“We remain positive on Africa, which is the last remaining growth frontier in the world, and will continue to invest in our operations”
our customers to access the internet affordably. With our recent affordable internetenabled phone offering together with free web access, our customers are in for a feast of information, education as well as the best experience on the Airtel network.” Markku Makelainen, Director, Global Operator Partnerships at Facebook, added: “Following our success with Free Basics in Zambia, Ghana, Malawi, and Kenya, we are excited to continue our partnership and further extend reach with Airtel in
AIRTEL AFRICA
Rwanda. We believe that access to information is a basic right that empowers communities and entrepreneurs around the world.”
THE RIGHT DIRECTION An ambitious target at the time of the acquisition, Africa continues to suffer with fluctuating currency rates and the effects of the economic slowdown. However, despite these difficulties, the continent remains a competitive and highly desirable location for Airtel, with over one billion inhabitants, effective telecom services remain in high demand. In a statement to Live Mint
“We believe that access to information is a basic right that empowers communities and entrepreneurs around the world”
earlier this year, the company remain positive for a bright future: “We remain positive on Africa, which is the last remaining growth frontier in the world, and will continue to invest in our operations. We believe we have acquired a promising asset and the longterm growth fundamentals of the market are intact. While a complete turnaround has taken longer than our initial expectations, we believe the overall business is moving in the right direction and we are satisfied with the performance.”
PAGE 7
+44 (0) 1603 411569 info@totalworldenergy.com East Coast Promotions Ltd, 2 Ardney Rise Norwich, Norfolk NR3 3QH
www.totalworldenergy.com