beMobile seeks to rise against competitors
Pauline Dikuelo | Friday April 17, 2015 15:45
Since its inception, beMOBILE has ostensibly been lagging behind in terms of market share and service delivery.
While Mascom and Orange command a huge chunk of the market by virtue of them being the first mobile operators in the country, beMOBILE is still yet to rise to the occasion.
Mascom and Orange were both established in 1998, while beMOBILE only entered the market in 2008. Orange was known as Vista Cellular before it rebranded in March 2003.
Orange and Mascom have since become dominant in the local market while beMOBILE is still struggling to match the two. Mascom currently commands a market share of around 52 percent with over 1.7 million subscribers, while Orange has about 1.1 million customers representing 39 percent of market share.
This leaves beMOBILE with a paltry nine percent of the market share with over 800,000 subscribers.
The dominance of Orange and Mascom was further boosted when the two companies formed partnerships with other international mobile carriers.
Mascom formed a partnership with South African MTN Group while Orange partnered with Swedish-based Ericsson.
These partnerships were meant to improve operational performance, as well as to develop and maintain key competencies and improve quality of service.
In addition, Orange and Mascom introduced 4G technologies while beMOBILE is still trailing with 3G.
Industry observers have asserted that the partnerships with international mobile carriers give Orange and Mascom a competitive advantage over beMOBILE.
However, the playing field is set to change soon following the partnership agreement between BTCL, which is the custodian of beMOBILE, and British telecommucations giant, Vodafone.
It is understood that under the non-equity partnership agreement, BTCL will become Vodafone’s preferred partner in Botswana and the companies will jointly offer new products and services in the region.
BTCL managing director, Paul Taylor said that the partnership would allow BTCL to better deliver innovative communications solutions for the benefit of customers and visitors to Botswana.
Taylor further stated that BTCL would also launch 4G technologies to match the data services offered by their competitors.
He said a 4G service would go live in the first quarter of 2016, which would cost BTCL P19 million in a bid to enhance its service delivery.
Potential and current applications include amended mobile web access, IP telephony, gaming services, high-definition mobile TV, video conferencing, 3D television and cloud computing.