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Celtel Expands Free Roaming Zone to 12 African Nations
Pan African operator, Celtel International has expanded its roaming free service, 'One Network' to include Burkina Faso, Chad, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan. These countries now join the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in the network which was initially launched in September 2006.
The expansion of One Network now means the world's first borderless mobile phone network covers an area more than twice the size of the European Union. Since its launch more than two million people have already used the service.
Announcing the One Network expansion, Zain Group CEO Dr Saad Al Barrak said, "The innovation behind and the expansion of the world's first borderless mobile phone network is a reflection of our dedication to the African continent and its people. We have revolutionarised telecommunications in Africa and we intend to roll out this service to more of our operations on the African continent and in the Middle East."
Starting today, all Celtel's customers both prepaid and postpaid in the 12 countries from East, Central and West Africa, will be able to use this service. They can move freely across geographic borders making calls and sms at local rates and receive incoming calls free of charge. They can top-up their prepaid phones with locally-bought airtime cards which can easily be bought at more than 500,000 points of sale.
Additionally One Network plays a crucial role in helping to promote and boost cross-border trade while driving economic growth in East, Central and West Africa.
Commenting about One Network in September 2006, The Economist magazine said "Celtel has, in effect, created a unified market of the kind that regulators can only dream about in Europe."
Posted to the site on 22nd November 2007