Visafone: Here comes another telecoms giant

Oluwaseun Ayantokun, Lagos

The number "8" is said to symbolise a new beginning just as "7" symbolises perfection. For the telecoms industry in Nigeria, the year 2008 could prove to be a period of a new beginnning, both for the operators and the subscribing public, with the arrival of Visafone on the turf any moment from now, all things being equal. Since 2001 when the first GSM operator in the country launched service, setting off a revolution in the sector, the industry has continued to be dominated by the GSM operators.Whatever happens in the industry, minds always focus on MTN, Glo and Celtel and whatever they do, determine a lot of things in the industry. So, there has been a big line of demarcation between the GSM operators that are seen as major players and the fixed line operators that use the CDMA technology and are without doubt, considered the minors.

However, Visafone Communications Ltd, founded by the banking guru, Mr Jim Ovia, is set to drastically reduce the line and perhaps change the current orientation of most Nigerians who situate GSM service in an arena of possibilities beyond the reach of CDMA. In the first place , Visafone is not pretending about its decision to make its presence felt across the country by the time it rolls out. To achieve that much, the company bidded for spectrum in the 800MHz band and the licence to operate in 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja in July, 2007.

Contesting alongside for the licence were GiCell Wireless, TC Africa Telecoms Network and Multilinks. But after a review of applications of the said companies by the Nigerian Communications Commission(NCC),only Visafone was said to have met all the criteria to allow it to participate in the auction for the frequencies, and therefore it was declared the winner. Visafone subsequently fulfilled the condition given by the regulatory body, paying the reserve price of NGN400 million, less the deposit already paid, within 14 days.

The spectrum licence that will be valid for an initial period of five years, offers three-carrier frequency spaces, totalling 3.75MHz in the 800MHz band. They are 881.31MHz, 882.57MHz, 883.83MHz (receiver) and 836.31MHz, 837.57MHz, 838.83MHz (transmission).The regions covered by the licence are Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Ekiti, Kwara, Edo, Delta, Benue, Kogi, Niger, Nasarawa, Taraba, Plateau, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto States and the FCT, Abuja. The spectrum was made available on a technology neutral basis, although it is particularly suitable for fixed-wireless and cellular CDMA operations.

Being true to the stuff he is made off, Mr Ovia had earlier achieved a 100 per cent acquisition of the then ailing Cellcom which had been operating in Lagos and Abuja. With this, Lagos State comes under its telecoms empire with ease. Not only that, another fixed line operator headquartered in Ikeja, Lagos called ITN formerly owned by a major guru in the industry has also been sold to Visafone 100 per cent. This is expected to strengthen Visafone’s network in the state that arguably constitutes 60 per cent of the telecoms business in Nigeria.

Mindful of the need to be strong in the eastern part of the country, Visafone also gunned for the strongest PTO in that part of Nigeria, acquiring Bordeax . It has also been rumoured that negotiation is nearing completion on buying over another strong PTO in the region to continue the spread. Visafone has also been the talk of the industry as touching acquisition of some other small telecoms players in the northern part. The agenda actually is to cover all parts of the country up to the degree the MTNs, Glos and the Celtels of this world have done and more within a short period of time.

Accoding to Tele-Info's findings, one other thing that will help Visafone roll out without much problems is the fact that it has incorporated Cyber Space, an Internet Service Provider owned by Mr Ovia, into its service delivery system. As at today, Cyberspace carries all data communication service of Zenith Bank which has branches spread all over Nigeria. Cyber Space may not exist again as it will be totally incorporated into Visafone. With Cyber Space's infrastructure, plus facilities inheritted from the buy overs, the issue of data communication service could be seen as fait accompli.

In terms of technology to be deployed, when Visafone rolls out, it comes along with the 3G(EVDO) that has become sing-sung among the three GSM operators. The expectation is also that every Visafone subscriber will be on the net anywhere they want with high speed Internet access. This will actually close the gap between the CDMA operators and their GSM counterparts, considering the fact that CDMA tariffs are more bearable. In essence, it may not take a long time before Visafone’s subscribers to do away or reduce the use of other phone lines, especially those of the GSM operators that are still struggling with the issue of bad quality of service, while their tariffs are on the high side. This may really pose a good challenge to the dominance of the three giants in the telecoms sector of Nigeria's economy.

Visafone is also not preparing in a small way as to personnel to man the affairs of the new comer to the telecom sector. Already in charge are Mr Ninan Thomas as the MD and CEO; Mr Vinor Shaha, the Chief Operating Officer; and Mr Varadaraja Rao as the Chief Technical Officer. Mr Thomas came to Visafone equipped with experience and expertise drawn from both finance and telecommunications. He has worked in the telecommunications sector in India, Philippines and the USA for the past 19 years. He was briefly President, Operations at ICT Starcoms, Chicago before coming to Visafone.

Mr Shah is a telecommunications engineer and was in the telecoms wing of the Indian Army where he served for 21 years and rose to the rank of a Colonel. His career took off in Info Electronics Systems. Mr Rao is not a new face in Nigeria as he was with Multi-Links as the Chief Technical Officer. His primary assignment there included operations and network roll out, international sales, marketing, brand promotion and turnkey telecoms systems and services. Other key staff were also drawn from relevant sectors. Mr Ovia is expected to lead with the same kind of the ingenuity demonstrated with Zenith Bank to shoot Visafone very high. It is needless to state that the finacial muscle is there.

When it rolls out, it has been estimated that Visafone, the wholly-owned Nigerian telecommunications company will not only empower Nigerians by providing them with seamless communications and data services, there will also be about 5,000 jobs for Nigerians over the next three years.

A statement from the company made available to Tele-Info states, "we are not just in the business to help Nigerians talk and communicate. We are committed to building both infrastructural and human capacity by providing employment for educated and suitably qualified Nigerians." Speaking during an event in Lagos in December, the MD/CEO of Visafone, Mr. Ninan Thomas had promised that Visafone will "redefine the business of talk and communication. We will offer the best in terms of quality of service: voice clarity, seamless connectivity, wide coverage, mobile, 3G high speed data (EVDO) and a host of fantastic value added services."

Analysts believe that Visafone, which was incorporated in Nigeria on June 20, 2007, following its acquisition of Cellcom and received its Unified Access Service licence as a telecoms operator from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on August 1, 2007 is expected to help define the telecoms landscape in 2008.

Writing in Cyberschuul, an online news medium, Engrs Gbenga Sesan and Titi Omo-Ettu, say "for 2008, two players to watch in the industry are Starcomms and Visafone. The promoter of Visafone comes necessarily into analysis since he has a record of aggressive approach to marketing products with a strong base in Information Technology. Considering the complimentary strength of his earlier and new efforts, he may spring some surprises and make good strategic influence in the fixed wireless services arena. Will he take Visafone to the capital market the way he did Zenith? Only time can tell."