MTN to invest 25% of profits into network

MTN to invest 25% of profits into network
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Mon 01 Feb. 2010, 04:01 CAT

MTN Zambia this year plans to invest 25 per cent of its turnover to grow its network which last year accounted for 55 per cent of the total domestic mobile growth, chief marketing officer Ernst Fonterne has said.

MTN Zambia is targeting providing lower high quality calls to its clients, roll out advanced mobile internet connectivity through 3rd generation technology and also targets to cover the remaining six unconnected districts in the country.

Last week, MTN Zambia, whose subscriber base last year hit one million, launched MTN Zone, a tariff option that allowed its subscribers to make calls at discounted rates depending on the area and time of the day.

The discounts on calls range from 10 per cent to 100 per cent.

In an interview after the launch of the MTN Zone, Fonterne said MTN Zambia in the first quarter of this year planned to consolidate its gains last year, leveraging on its lower tariffs and the 2010 FIFA World Cup which is expected to enhance the brand of Africa's largest mobile phone provider.

"We are looking at increasing our points of presence in Zambia to give more accessibility of our network to the Zambian market - beginning last year, our points of distribution grew from 4, 000 to the current 11, 000 points of presence."

Fonterne said MTN Zambia's growth prospects for this year would be anchored on the achievement of last year as well as rolling out advanced mobile internet connectivity via 3rd generation technology.

He, however, declined to give the specific growth targets for this year as doing that would abrogate MTN Group's listing rules on Johannesburg Stock Exchange because the company was currently in closed period.
Fonterne said MTN Zambia would in the first half of this year rollout 3rd generation technology through lowering connectivity costs.

Fonterne said MTN Zambia would lower the cost of the data card from the K750, 000 to K800, 000 to about 50 per cent as a way of enhancing rolling out 3rd generation technology through provision of Internet connectivity of 7.2 megabits per second.