Vodafone Group Plc is preparing a bid for a new mobile-phone license in Zambia that will enable the U.K. company to add voice services to its data product in the southern African country, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Winning the auction would give Newbury, England-based Vodafone a way of expanding Zambia operations run by local partner Afrimax, said the person, who asked not to be identified as the company hasn’t made its intentions public.
The successful bidder would be competing with Johannesburg-based MTN Group Ltd, the country’s market leader with more than 48 percent market share, India’s Bharti Airtel Ltd and state-owned Zamtel.
The government has given the green light to Zambia’s telecommunications regulator to start the process of awarding the country’s fourth mobile-phone license, Transport and Communications Minister Brian Mushimba said on Monday.
The new operator could be in place within a year, he said.
The impending auction represents a rare opportunity for international mobile-phone companies to expand in a growing African market without making an acquisition.
Zambia, Africa’s second-biggest copper producer with a population of more than 16 million, had 12.4 million active mobile subscribers at the end of June, 10 percent more than a year before, according to data from the finance ministry.
“At an appropriate and opportune time, Vodafone Zambia will make a comprehensive statement,” Vodafone Zambia spokesman Mukuka Mulenga said in emailed response to questions.
Vodafone operates in Africa mainly through majority ownership of Johannesburg-based Vodacom Group Ltd., MTN’s cross-town rival.
It retains a standalone business in Ghana, while Afrimax also operates a Vodafone-branded data provider in Cameroon.
Fantastic. That’s the competition we
Do not they will be any cheaper, why is this fantastic.
Here in the UK , they are the largest mobile provider but have the worst coverage geographically and are relatively expensive.
They will be there to exploit the market and the consumer, and why not?
Zambians are dull anyway
Better stick to a Micra which is 2 years old ( like mine) than a BMW whoch is 18 years old. You feel my knickers?
Thanks
BB2014,2016
Ba mushota you are here with us probably in chawama compound, just cause you set your location in your browser to U.K doesn’t mean you are in the UK. most likely from the way you go around boasting its like you have have never even been to the UK if God forbid you once upon a time happened to find yourself there via Government Bursary scheme but were deported back to Zambia because i suspect you have an inferiority complex and other syndromes. the way your brain operates is not normal, your fingers seem to have another source of intelligence besides the pin prick pea inside your skull.
Fantastic. That’s the competition we want in Zambia. Lets get value fir money and not fun product packages like expiring bundles. I buy my talk and it expires? How? Dies money expire?
cool
Competition is healthy. Just look at how Multichoice are panicking with price reductions. They even make efforts to bring back those who are disconnected.
It’s folly to expect drastic benefits trickling down to consumers simply by having a fourth mobile provider. Remember how Zambians celebrated when MTN came onto the scene? Remember those days when mobile operators used to say international calls were expensive because ZAMTEL had the monopoly on the international gateway services. Are international calls any cheaper now that the international gateway services have been liberalised? I doubt!! I stopped getting excited by such superficial stunts. The only time in Zambia when competition resulted in drastic price reduction was when Dangote came on the scene with his cement plant. The rest are just a bunch of evil cartels. Cool down your expectations!!!
Why do all announcements have to include that zambia is one of the largest copper producers in africa, are we that insecure that that is our claim to fame….this is about a mobile licence.
Czn somebody tell me why airtel, mtn and za,tel will be part of the auction as announced in the press release
Good vodaphone