"We have opened our regional office today. For the first time we will directly serve customers," Zain’s Sudan Chief Executive Officer Khaled Muhtadi said. "We now have a vastly improved service ... with 50 antennas across the south."
Zain fully acquired Sudan’s former state operator Mobitel in 2006, opening the door to expansion in the south where suspicions after decades of north-south civil war had prevented northern-owned operators from expanding despite a 2005 peace deal.
So far very little of Zain’s $500 million investment in Sudan has been spent on the south where Muhtadi said the company may have around 150,000 customers. Because lines have been sold on the black market it is difficult to know exactly, he said.
"(But) we estimate over the next couple of years to spend $100 to $150 million, depending on what we find of the ground," he said.
With the south’s bad roads and high cost of fuel and transportation, expansion has been hard and it was not clear how much of the population has returned home after the war. South Sudan’s population has been estimated at 10 million.
Source: JUBA (Sudan Tribune)
Mike Hitchen, Mike Hitchen Consulting Publisher of
i On Global Trends and Sydney Irresistible
i On Global Trends and Sydney Irresistible
