Airtel thrives in face of industry challenges

In the face of national economic pressure and telecoms industry challenges, Airtel Nigeria has continued to defy all odds to record success in its operations.

Though, as a pioneer operator of Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) market in Nigeria, the network has had several names-changes as a result of boardroom squabbles.

But the network which has fast become a popular brand in the face of frequent change of names, has continued to keep pace with its relevance in the market

In its bid to have wider spread and sustain its growth, Airtel parent company, Bharti Airtel last year penned an investment of $300 million on its Nigeria network expansion.

Besides the innovative services being offered by Airtel to thrill its subscribers, the service provider introduced a unique roaming package that empowers telecoms consumers to connect with business associates, friends and family members at discounted rates.

The service provider which recorded 27,556,544 subscribers in the second quarter of this year, launched a responsive revolutionary CSR intervention tagged Airtel Touching Lives as one of the strategies to attract more subscribers.

Speaking with Hallmark, the Head of Public Relations of Airtel Nigeria, Femi Adeniran, said the network has been weathering the industry challenges with customer-friendly services and innovations.

According to him, “Our ongoing initiatives and innovative offers are indications that we are not resting on our oars in satisfying our subscribers. In recent times, we have come up with various offers that are quite exclusive to us.

What has kept us going is our tenacity  of purpose- to see that our subscribers get the best of our service.”

Commending the painstaking efforts Airtel has made to ensure it plays competitively in the telecom market, National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) president, Deolu Ogunbanjo, said Airtel is a network that really feels the pulse of Nigerian subscribers and give them what they need.

In his words: “The network has been customer-friendly. In its early days, the network was the first to introduce toll free customer care line.

It significantly crashed call tariff beyond the imagination of both the subscribers and other operators. It is the first network to offer free Short Message Service (SMS). The network is known for giving back to its customers. And that quality has been endearing subscribers to it over the years despite other challenges it has faced.”

However, the network needs to improve on its network quality significantly,” he said.

Since launching in the country in 2010, Airtel has invested over US$1.7 billion as at 2014 in expanding network capacity.

From the reports of Credit Suisse, a global financial services group, Airtel’s market share grew by 21.3 per cent in the ten months up to April 2013.

While confirming the resolution of the network to sustain the customer-centric vision, Airtel Nigeria Chief Executive Office, Segun Ogunsanya , said: “The recent report from the NCC is a glowing testimony to our collective commitment of delivering value to our customers and also becoming the most loved brand in the daily lives of Nigerians in line with our corporate vision.”

“For us at Airtel Nigeria, this is, indeed, the beginning of a new journey to reclaiming market leadership in the highly competitive telecoms landscape and we are totally committed to our quest of offering the best network experience as well as bespoke value offerings,” Ogunsanyo added.

Airtel set a record on August 5, 2001 by becoming the first telecoms operator to launch commercial GSM services in Nigerian market in 2001.

Airtel started as Econet in 2001, and later became Vodacom after an internal boardroom internal strife among the directors. Before long, V-Mobile Nigeria took over from Vodacom, when the South African investor retreated shortly after it came on board.

V-Mobile was fast becoming a household name when suddenly, the network transformed into Celtel Nigeria in 2006 following the purchase of 65 per cent of the equity of Vee Networks by Celtel Africa.

The name Zain took over from Celtel, while Airtel which is the current brand replaced Zain.