Two years after, Airtel yet to break- even
TWO
years after acquiring Zain Telecom’s Africa`s operation for $10.7
billion, Airtel telecommunications company of Nigeria said it was yet to
break-even on the operations.
Airtel said that within the two-year period, it has equally invested over $1.2 billion on various service upgrades and network expansions, across its service stations across the country.
Disclosing this on Wednesday, in Lagos, at a media interaction of its two years of service, Airtel’s Chief Executive Officer, Rajan Swaroop, said the company was not daunted by the various challenges bedeviling the sector, stressing that government needs to support the growth of the sector.
Swaroop said despite the challenges, Airtel was able to grow its subscribers base from 14.5 million to 20 million between July 2010 and 2012, an increase of 31 per cent, adding that traffic on its network has also increased by 124 per cent.
The CE0 said the telecommunications firm now has its 3.75G in more than 75 towns and villages in Nigeria with about 3000 sites launched in the country.
“Despite these challenges, we have grown our subscribers to over 20 million. It will interest you to note that two years after that acquisition, we are yet to breakeven”, he stated.
Swaroop, who listed some the challenges troubling operators in the sector to include, multiple taxation, erratic power supply, over regulation, vandalism among others.
He disclosed that operators spent #5 billion monthly on power generation, adding that an average operator suffers between 70 to 80 fibre cuts monthly and an average of 50 to 60 cases of locked up sites in every 30 days.
The Airtel CE0 disclosed that no single approval has been given to the firm for the installation of base stations in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, since 2005, which he said has been to various bureaucracies’.
On efforts put up to improve its services, Swaroop said, beside investing heavily on the network, the telecommunications firm in 2011 deployed over 535km fibre, which has been increased to 2070km since the beginning of the year, aimed at expanding and enriching both voice and data services on its network.
Speaking also, the Director of Communications at Airtel, Emeka Opara, telecommunications firm in the country spend a lot in generating their powers, stressing that only 54 per cent of Nigeria is covered by the national grid, “am very sure that the remaining 46 per cent, may never see power. 90 per cent of our businesses run on generator. If you come to Eko Hotel, to host an event, they will ask if they should put you on generator or power and the same goes for other hotels. You can imagine how much that costs us. We also have issues with the area urchings popularly called area boys. They usually demand expensively to load diesel at our BTS, among others.“
Opara hinted that despite the various challenges, the telecommunications firm was poised to continue to deliver best of services.
Airtel said that within the two-year period, it has equally invested over $1.2 billion on various service upgrades and network expansions, across its service stations across the country.
Disclosing this on Wednesday, in Lagos, at a media interaction of its two years of service, Airtel’s Chief Executive Officer, Rajan Swaroop, said the company was not daunted by the various challenges bedeviling the sector, stressing that government needs to support the growth of the sector.
Swaroop said despite the challenges, Airtel was able to grow its subscribers base from 14.5 million to 20 million between July 2010 and 2012, an increase of 31 per cent, adding that traffic on its network has also increased by 124 per cent.
The CE0 said the telecommunications firm now has its 3.75G in more than 75 towns and villages in Nigeria with about 3000 sites launched in the country.
“Despite these challenges, we have grown our subscribers to over 20 million. It will interest you to note that two years after that acquisition, we are yet to breakeven”, he stated.
Swaroop, who listed some the challenges troubling operators in the sector to include, multiple taxation, erratic power supply, over regulation, vandalism among others.
He disclosed that operators spent #5 billion monthly on power generation, adding that an average operator suffers between 70 to 80 fibre cuts monthly and an average of 50 to 60 cases of locked up sites in every 30 days.
The Airtel CE0 disclosed that no single approval has been given to the firm for the installation of base stations in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, since 2005, which he said has been to various bureaucracies’.
On efforts put up to improve its services, Swaroop said, beside investing heavily on the network, the telecommunications firm in 2011 deployed over 535km fibre, which has been increased to 2070km since the beginning of the year, aimed at expanding and enriching both voice and data services on its network.
Speaking also, the Director of Communications at Airtel, Emeka Opara, telecommunications firm in the country spend a lot in generating their powers, stressing that only 54 per cent of Nigeria is covered by the national grid, “am very sure that the remaining 46 per cent, may never see power. 90 per cent of our businesses run on generator. If you come to Eko Hotel, to host an event, they will ask if they should put you on generator or power and the same goes for other hotels. You can imagine how much that costs us. We also have issues with the area urchings popularly called area boys. They usually demand expensively to load diesel at our BTS, among others.“
Opara hinted that despite the various challenges, the telecommunications firm was poised to continue to deliver best of services.
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