By adding these enriched communication functionalities, MTN Nigeria has leapt way ahead of other competitors in the market. They are even ahead of other operators in mature markets. Reachability is a key factor.

Lucien Bruins, Business Development Manager for Ericsson, says: “In a vast country such as Nigeria, you will never have 100 percent coverage. You have coverage in the population centers but it will never be complete over the entire country because of the geography of the land.” Therefore, it is important for Nigerian subscribers to be able to get in touch with called parties even when there is limited network coverage, network congestion or the phone is simply turned off. With four different operators competing in Nigeria, it is also a contest as to which one can provide the most features to subscribers.

“It is interesting that MTN, which is operating in an emerging market, chose to implement solutions that were originally intended for more advanced, saturated markets,” Bruins says. Enriched communications applications such as call completion and ringback tones are offered on top of traditional voice services to increase ARPU and network efficiency. However, MTN Nigeria is in a growth phase, which means it has the capital to make infrastructure investments that will make it stand out from its competition. “MTN recognizes that it is easier to attract subscribers and get market share now than it will be in four years when the market is more mature,” Bruins says.

Nigeria also has a number of large international companies, many of which are involved in the petroleum industry. These companies employ many expatriates who make international calls and want VPN functionality. This enterprise market is a very profitable segment for operators in Nigeria. Bruins explains that getting a customer such as Shell is the main reason behind MTN’s decision to implement a VPN solution. “MTN purchased a VPN solution from Ericsson, which opened up the opportunity to talk to them about enriched communications as a means of addressing issues of reachability,” Bruin says. MTN is based in South Africa and has subsidiaries in several African countries that also have the potential for similar solutions.

The Ericsson call completion solution is unique in that it enables automatic callback functionality – competitor products offer SMS callback but not automatic callback. MTN will be implementing the solution at MTN Nigeria in late 2005 and it is planned to be deployed to 300,000 subscribers in mid-2006.

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