Vodafone confident of Ghana broadband lead

BUSINESS

By Nana Appiah Acquaye, Accra, Ghana

Vodafone, named Ghana’ s Best Telecom Brand and Wholesale Telecom Operator of the year at the recent Mobileworld Ghana telecoms Awards, says it does not feel threatened by new competition.

Vodafone Ghana’ s team was led at the awards ceremony by Mrs. Carmen Bruce-Annan, Head of Corporate Communications. She told BiztechAfrica that Ghanaians have come to recognize and accept  Vodafone, the 5th largest global telecoms brand, as the brand they can associate with and trust.

She said: “ It meant hard work on the part of management and staff of Vodafone Ghana. We will not relent in our efforts to improve upon the quality of our services to our esteemed customers across the country” .

When asked whether Vodafone feels threatened with the introduction of other wholesale telecom operators like Glo-1 and MainOne Cable Company, which also has fiber optic stations on the shores of Ghana, offering similar broadband services, Bruce-Annan said Vodafone was confident its services were second to none when it comes to the sale of its bandwidth to customers. The presence of other wholesalers was welcome news, she said, but no threat to a well established product like Vodafone Broadband 4 U.

Also at the awards, the Chief Operating Officer of Airtel, Mrinsal Roy, accepted awards for Best Customer Care and the Best Marketing Campaign (Airtel Change your Life Campaign). The Chief Executive Officer of Airtel, Philip Sowah, was also judged the telecom CEO of the year.

In an interview with BiztechAfrica, Sowah said his team was able to get this far because of the spirit of team work that permeated through all the departments of Airtel. He said the awards are going to motivate them to aim higher so as to reach millions of Ghanaians with their good coverage, quality and affordable services.

MTN Ghana, named the Best Telecom Operator in the country by Ghanaian mobile phone users, received a standing ovation as its Corporate Communications Manager, Georgina Asare-Fiagbenu, accepted awards for overall winner, Best Mobile Money Service and the Most Socially Responsible Telecom Operator (MTN Foundation). She said the awards showed the company was doing something right, and would spur the team on to give more to the community.

Representatives of Tigo and Expresso were present at the event, both telecom players failed to take  home an award.
In other categories, Helios Towers won the Best Telecom Infrastructure Company; Essoko Ghana took home the most Innovative Mobile project of the Year, with Mobile Content winning the Best Mobile Content Provider of the year.

Mobile Phone of the Year went to Samsung, while Ericsson won the Vendor of the Year award.

Standard Chartered Bank was adjudged the Best Telecom Financing bank of the Year.

The Ghana Telecom Africa Award is the industry event of the year and first of its kind. It aims to recognize individuals and organizations at the fore front of developing telecommunication in Ghana.

The CEO OF Mobile World Magazine, organisers of the awards, in an interview with BiztechAfrica, expressed satisfaction at the turn of events where telecoms service operators get to know how the public feels about them. He said the awards would send a clear signal to all operators that it is about time they deliver quality yet affordable services to their customers.