- A subsidiary of the Atlantique Telecom, MOOV Côte d'Ivoire, has recorded remarkable success, signing up over half a million subscribers for its mobile services. Since the launch of the operator in July this year, the number of subscribers has increased, with its network covering about 80 percent of the country.
The Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat), holsa 50 percent stake in Atlantique Telecom.
Atlantique Telecom provides GSM services in seven African countries - Cote d'Ivoire, Benin, Togo, Gabon, Central African Republic, Burkina Faso and Niger - in the name of MOOV Company. With a combined population of 61 million and penetration rate of below 8 percent, it shows that a high potential for growth in subscriber base.
The excellent network coverage is considered one of the most important factors that has contributed to the success and serves as attraction for a large section of Cote d'Ivoire families, majority of live in far away villages that suffer from poor coverage. According to MOOV officials, this problem was overcome through the provision of services in remote locations.
The chairman of Etisalat, Mohammad Hassan Omran, described the launch of operations in Cote d'Ivoire as cementing his company's commitment to be among the top ten telecom operators in the world by 2010. "We are leveraging our operations and investments in countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe, following our recent successful entries into Afghanistan and Egypt," he told Mobile Africa.
For t he group marketing manager of Atlantique Telecom, Khaled Al Tenaiji, branching out to Cote d'Ivoire comes at a decisive time when Etisalat sees record success in its international investments and operations. "Telecom is also experiencing growth in its penetration rates and service portfolio catering to the GSM subscriber in Western Africa, which has some of the lowest mobile penetration rates," he said.
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