The Beauty In Areeba: A Close Look At Ghana's Leading Cellular Network
by David Ajao2005-08-16 00:00:00 | Viewed 2062 times
Spacefon Areeba yesterday sent a text message to all its subscribers reading: "Our evolution is complete. Spacefon Areeba is now Areeba! We welcome you to Areeba - the heart of your world".
After receiving this text message yesterday, on my way from work, it sent me thinking and looking back at this company that has slowly edged itself into the heart of many people, in Ghana. While I cannot exhaust the good and bad sides of Areeba in this short write-up, I would share my views, all the same.
The Beauty in Areeba lies in it being the pacesetter and clear leader in the GSM industry in Ghana.
Areeba started way back in November 1996, when Scancom Limited got permission from the Government of Ghana to operate a GSM network in Ghana. It started with the brand name, Spacefon. Not only was this company Ghana's first GSM network, but it has since then set the pace for its competitors by being the first in most cases, to unveil new value added services.
It is important to note that Mobitel had erstwhile been operating an analogue network, and the state-owned Ghana Telecom later unveiled its ONEtouch GSM network. However, the real race started when Mobitel launched its GSM network branded Buzz GSM, in June 2002.
It soon became a battle to show supremacy. Areeba which had the highest number of subscribers was trying had to keep them, and win more subscribers. Buzz GSM was bent on taking the lead away from Areeba.
This 'war' started with Value Added Services. Within a short period of time, Areeba launched Text-to-Email, HOP (Prepaid International Roaming), Logos & Ringtones, CLIP (subscribers are informed of missed calls via SMS), My Spacefon (SMS-driven information-on-demand), Family & Friends (call two Areeba numbers at lower rates).
Clearly, Areeba almost always lead the way with new Value Added Services, whilst the others followed. Areeba also was first to launch Mobile-to-Mobile Unit Transfer as well as GSM Desktop Phones (popularly referred to as "Space-to-Space machines") for commercial call centres.
Areeba was also the first cellular network to cover all the regions in Ghana. First with MultiMedia Messaging, GPRS and EDGE.
Areeba (then known as Spacefon) office in Osu, Accra, Ghana.
Areeba's customer service is truly world-class. Its customer service number 111 is available 24 hours everyday with a voice prompt that reads out frequently asked questions and an 'army' of customer service representatives who are ready to attend to calls during working hours. A visit to any of their customer centres nationwide would give a subscriber a good experience of what a telecom company should be. Polite and efficient personnel with smiling faces are on hand to solve any problem such subscriber could have with their service.
The beauty in Areeba also lies in the fact that it has the largest subscriber base; a whopping 1.4 million subscribers! (That's high, by Ghana's standards). In this same attribute lies its greatest weakest. The high number of subscribers has made it network congested. Areeba is having to struggle to keep up with managing the thousands of calls that are initiated every hour of every day. It recently acquired a loan from IFC, to be able to improve its operations and further expand its coverage.
Areeba also announced its intentions in April 2004 to launch Africa's first EDGE-capable network. As at time of writing this piece, Areeba is yet to commercially launch its EDGE offering though a top official in its technical department confirmed to me that its network was already EDGE-capable.
What else can I say? So far so good, but there is room for improvement.
David Ajao writes from Accra, Ghana.
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