Africa (16 countries)
Marking a bold new expansion, Zain acquired African mobile telecoms leader Celtel International B.V in May 2005 for US$3.36 billion, underscoring Zain’s ambition to become an international telecommunications services provider.
On August 1, 2008 all Celtel operations were rebranded to Zain. The move coincided with the linking of the world’s first borderless mobile service ‘One Network’ across two continents. Please click here to read more on the rebranding and the One Network extension.
As a leading mobile operator in sub-Saharan Africa, Zain operates in 16 countries serving more than 42.15 million customers - as of December 31, 2009 . The countries in which Zain offers telecommunications services are (please click on country link to access the website of each country)- Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Please note that Zain in Sudan falls under the Middle East umbrella.
Having invested over $12 billion on the African continent to date, Zain in Africa is the market leader in 12 of the 16 countries in which it currently operates..
Serving over 42.15 million customers on the African continent, Zain is committed to helping to open up an exciting world of new possibilities and opportunities, in culture, health and education, and acting responsibly in the communities where it operates is an integral part of its business. Zain has pioneered a range of education-based initiatives across Africa and is partnering with governments and communities to help them achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals. For example, in the last year alone, Zain has donated millions of dollars worth of books and educational supplies to government-owned schools in Africa. Also Zain is partnering the Earth Institute and Ericsson in providing mobile telephony to over 400,000 people in remote areas of Africa.
Zain is also committed to supporting Africa's passions, be it in culture or music. Most recently Zain was a global sponsor of the 2008 and 2009 Mandela Concerts in London and New York, which honoured Nelson Mandela's 90th & 91st birthday and raised substantial funds for his charitable work, as well as increasing the profile of African artists who Zain sponsored to attend and perform at the concert. Zain gave people across Africa the chance to participate in the event by offering its mobile phone networks to well-wishers wanting to send text messages wishing Nelson Mandela a happy birthday. All the money raised from this was given to the 46664 campaign.
Zain introduced One4All, a sim based payphone handset, which enables more people to have access to telephony by reducing making it easier for people to operate a payphone service. This handset costs considerably less than other payphone and is small and very portable.
Zain has also introduced GPRS/ EDGE technology which has enable faster internet access to customers and is introducing 3G. Zain’s product offering also caters to top end business people by introducing services such as Blackberry e-mail.
Zain’s 8,000 experienced African staff is committed to the company’s track record of profitable growth.
Notably for Zain, the acquisition of Celtel is the largest corporate transaction of African assets as well as being the Middle East’s largest private sector transaction in the telecommunications industry.
Zain and One Network
Zain has demonstrated how the value of a single brand and contiguous networks can directly benefit customers. In September 2006, the company introduced One Network, the world’s first borderless mobile phone network which was later expanded in June and November 2007 in Africa and then to the Middle East in April 2008. One Network is the world’s first borderless mobile telecommunications operation offering for 500 million people in 21 countries across Africa and the Middle East the opportunity to move freely across geographical borders without roaming call surcharges and without having to pay to receive incoming calls.
These countries are: Africa: Burkina Faso, Chad, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Middle East: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Not surprisingly more than 10 million customers used the service at least once since service introduction.
From the customer perspective the One Network service means:
- There are no roaming surcharges when Zain customers are outside their home country. The customers can make calls and send SMS at local rates, receive incoming calls free-of-charge, top up with scratch cards brought from their home country, and, the most importantly, with locally-purchased scratch cards widely available in more that one million points of sales in One Network countries.
- Zain makes it easy for customers - there is no registration, there are no extra fees, no roaming or international access deposit, no complicated dialling formats, no need to remember to change tariffs before travelling, etc.
- Customers continue to have access all of their Home network services (Voicemail, Customer Care, Know. It All., Me2U – the air time transfer service, GPRS/EDGE high speed internet access, Corporate Private Networks, Blackberry e-mail, Mobile Fun Portals) no matter which One Network country they are in. Should they need assistance, calls to Customer Care (via home network short codes) are free of charge and are routed to their Home network call centre where they may speak to a service representative in their own language.
- Zain aims to expand One Network to all its operations in Africa and elsewhere, subject to regulatory approvals. The service expands the customer’s coverage and service experience from one country to all of Africa and the Middle East (where Zain operates) becoming their network and Zain becoming the preferred pan-African mobile operator.
Fact Box (December 31, 2009)
Active customers: 42.15 million
Staff numbers: 8,000
Market share and rank: Market leader in 12 of 16 operations
Milestones
- One network borderless roaming…a world’s first
- Zain Group has invested $12 billion to date in Africa
- Commitment to supporting communities
