Senegal: Sudatel Opens Shop Under Expresso Label

APA-Dakar (Senegal) Sudanese telecoms outfit Sudatel, has launched operations in Senegal under the Expresso brand at a ceremony chaired by Senegalese Information, Telecommunication and ICT Minister, Abdoul Aziz Sow.

Expresso Senegal's managers showed visitors around the company's technical installations shortly before its premises were commissioned on Monday.

The four-storey building hosting the technical division includes the network control equipments and switches forming the "the network's nerve centre", as well as servers connected to external centres.

The launch is a landmark in Senegal's walk "toward more modern, effective and democratic access to communication technologies," the Information minister said.

On his part, Expresso Sénégal CEO Emmanuel Hamez assured that his company came to Senegal to contribute in developing the telecoms sector.

In this regard, Expresso's "simple" maiden offers will test the network for the prepaid method, after which the new company will begin to stabilize the network to later launch other services and offers," Hamez announced.

He promised to pull its customers from "beaten tracks", stressing that "the Senegalese seem to be yearning for novelty." Sudatel will offer mobile, fixed as well as Internet services through its Expresso Sénégal brand.

The company bought the third telephony license for 200 million dollars, after Senegalese authorities put it for sale in September 2007 (90 billion CFA francs).

Hamez assured that the money invested in Senegal "came only" from the profits made by its Sudani (Sudan) and Mauritel Azani (Mauritania) subsidiaries.

He was referring to the controversy over the choice of Sudatel at the expense of other operators, especially as Senegalese opposition parties claimed that the company is on the United States "black list" of terrorism-supporting companies.

Posted to the site on 13th January 2009