About 1.2 million telephone subcribers of Multilinks -Telkom Nigeria, will in the days to come, receive formal notification of a change of ownership and impending rebranding of their network to Visafone, as well as assurances of continuity of service.

This follows the acquisition last week, of the telephony component of the Multilinks-Telkom network in Nigeria, by rivals - Visafone. The notices will be conveyed by way of text messages and advertisements in the media, Business Day was reliably informed.

The expanded Visafone is also considering making marginal reductions in tariff and other promotions, aimed at luring subscribers of their rivals which operate on the CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and GSM technology platforms.

Industry watchers say Visafone may be able to perform this coup in the CDMA segment, because it has attained improved economies of scale by the acquisition of about 1.2 million Multilinks-Telkom subscribers.

This gives Visafone 4.2 million subscribers in a segment with just over 6 million active subscribers, making them clear market leaders.

They also say that Visafone will also begin a struggle to match Starcomms, its main rival in the CDMA sphere, in the data and Internet market, where Starcomms is believed to have clear superiority.

Starcomms is currently undertaking a successful push to attract subcribers via smart phones and androids which have much larger screens than mobile phones and high internet and data capability.

The Starcomms android drive was so successful, that it recently had to pull back an advert campaign because it sold out its stock of androids ahead of advert placements.
Android devices are said to be eating into the computer laptop market because they are much more handy, more fashionable and perform practically all the functionalities of laptops and in some cases also function as mobile phones.

Visafone is paying $52 million for the acquisition of Multilinks-Telkoms CDMA network and has by this move, grown its subscriber base up to 4.2 million.

Multi-links is the oldest mobile phone company in Nigeria , having been in the market for over 15 years.

At a signing ceremony in Johannesburg, South Africa, with officials of Telkom, the parent company of Multilinks, Jim Ovia, the chairman of Visafone said: “Visafone recognises that this deal will solidify its position in the Nigerian marketplace and is committed to offering world-class voice and data solutions to existing Multilinks customers. This transaction brings us closer to achieving our target of 10 million subscribers within three years.

“ We believe that the superior technology offered by CDMA, combined with a subscriber base of 4.2 million active subscribers will enable Visafone to continue as a game-changing innovator in the Nigerian marketplace. Multilinks customers will be afforded the same high quality of network and customer service as existing Visafone subscribers enjoy.”

Telkom paid $330 million three years ago for the Nigerian business Multilinks and then posted an operating loss of 262 million rand ($37.42 million) in the six months to end-September.

Industry watchers say that the CDMA segment of the Nigerian telecoms market was undermined by the five years mobile exclusivity given to the GSM operators at inception in 2001, as it enabled the GSM operators to attain market dominance.

It is also said that Visafone and Starcomms are bidding to acquire a smaller CDMA operator and the outcome of that deal could create a even more marked leadership for Visafone, or even up the competition somewhat.

SOURCE: http://www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php/tech/telecoms/20047-visafone-acquires-multi-links-starts-new-telecom-war

http://www.itnewsafrica.com/2011/04/nigeria-visafone-acquires-multi-links/