By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
At the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization conference in Freetown in July, two signposts, standing side by side, read: “Di real 4G” and “D only 4G.”
Those signposts by Africell and Orange illustrated an interesting side of the competition in Sierra Leone’s telecoms industry.
This week we reported on an even more practical rivalry between Africell and latest entrant, QCell. The story highlighted how the rivalry between the two have affected their subscribers.
The thrust of the story was the difficulty for QCell subscribers to make cross calls to Africell subscribers and vice vasa. But who would have thought that rivalry between two mobile companies will affect customers? In an ideal situation, it should benefit them.
The National Telecommunications Commission (NATCOM), which regulates the industry, said the problem was because Africell had not given enough lines to QCell for call traffic and that QCell had not written to them to complain.
“What we know is that when QCell approached Africell they should be able to interconnect and they (Africell) gave two E- ones. E-ones are trunks through which the mobile calls from QCell to Africell will be terminated. But we understand that there is some congestion which is happening so the congestion will only be solved if more E-ones are given from Africell to QCell,” Abdul Ben Foday, Director of Cooperate & Industry Affairs at NATCOM, told Politico.
Foday added: “If you want more E-ones to be given to you from Africell to QCell, then it is incumbent upon QCell to do a letter to NATCOM so that NATCOM will instruct Africell to give out more E-ones to them so that the congestion which the customers are facing in peak times, maybe early in the morning or early in the evening, will be resolved.”
The rivalry and its effects on subscribers
The rivalry between Africell and QCell originates from The Gambia, where both of them were originally established.
According to Budde.com, an online based telecom research site, Africell is the biggest company in Gambia with 65% of the customer base. Comium and QCell are closely competing for the second and third spot. There is also the state run Gamcell.
It is not clear how many subscribers Africell has in Sierra Leone, but they certainly has more customers than QCell, which is barely a year old in the market.
QCell started operations in the country in January this year. Eleven 11 months on they have fared on well. So far, they have matched almost every promotion their rival networks have put up. They have even forced Africell to make massive cuts on data prices.
For example, QCell was the first network this year to sell over 1 Gigabytes (GB) of data for as low as Le18, 000. A new Africell promotion called “Ya!” now offers subscribers 1GB of data for Le10, 000. Orange has not budged so far on this front, selling 1.2GB of data for Le29, 000.
QCell entered the telecoms market with a low pricing strategy. Today, they can boast of the cheapest tariff in the voice call segment. For them to be even considered as a serious rival just 11 months since they entered the market in the country is a huge success for QCell. For the moment, they are succeeding where others have failed.
But QCell is not the first company that has used low pricing strategy on entry into the Sierra Leone telecoms market. This has been like a signature move for every new entrant. Networks like Tigo, Smart, Zain and Airtel all used this strategy.
In all the above cases, Africell was stretched in the competition but they weathered the storm and eventually outlasted their opponents.
Strategists at Africell HQ may as well be counting on this with the case of QCell, probably asking; “How long can QCell stay cheap?”
Africell is currently the oldest mobile network in the country, after the comatose state owned Sierratel.
“How long can QCell stay cheap?” is a real question, because this strategy may not continue once they expand. At such a point the cost of operations, tax and other numerous factors is likely to force their hands to raise prices of services.
Add all the above to the very small mobile user market in Sierra Leone, and you will see a real scramble for even scraps by all four operators.
A 2018 report by the GSM Association, titled: “The Mobile Economy West Africa,” showed that mobile phone penetration in Sierra Leone was at 45%. The same report indicated that internet penetration in the country was at 21%.
All this paint a picture of how small really the Sierra Leonean market is for mobile networks to explore. This also means that we are going to see more aggressive marketing campaigns for survival in the future.
In the present, with Orange and Africell, it is hard not to notice the open jibes they throw at each other in radio and television commercials. Today, commercials are not only targeting subscribers, they are also openly mocking each other’s services; only stopping short of naming names.
So perhaps that scramble has already started.
The spoils of the war
The very basic understanding of economics has taught us that a free market is good. Four mobile operators in a country with a population of just over seven millions means tough competition. For the users, this means more choices to explore and more opportunities to tap into.
This is why most mobile phone users are subscribed to at least two mobile networks.
In an era where the voice calls have drastically dropped, mobile operators know that the battle for them is to lure subscribers with data bonanzas.
New promos from Africell, QCell and Orange include a lot of talk time, just to convince subscribers that voice calls are still necessary.
All three operators currently have ongoing promotions that combine SMS, Voice calls and data, all in one bundle.
Orange has Yo, Africell has Ya Mix, while Q Cell has Tok Boku Boku en Browse Langa.
In the drive to get us all hooked up on our phone more and more, the Cold War among Africell, Q Cell and Orange will just intensify. From a war of market dominance, the greatest winners would be the subscribers.
© 2019 Politico Online
