be Mobile reaches the 200,000 client mark

WANETSHA MOSINYI
Staff Writer | Friday October 9, 2009 00:00

 

Last May, the mobile operator announced it had reached 100,000 customers after a year in operation.

'We have been registering steady growth since May and are currently at the 200, 000 level,' be MOBILE General Manager, Anthony Masunga, said in response to Mmegi Business at the presentation of the BTC Group's annual results for the year ended March 2009 on Tuesday in Gaborone.

But Masunga said he could not break down the actual performance and amount be MOBILE contributed to the parent company's annual results for the period under review because the mobile operator was yet to qualify full results.

'Our results were absorbed into the group because we only started being operational around October last year,' he said. 'Our full results will be available in the next financial year.'

Even though be Mobile was officially launched in April last year, it was rudderless because BTC did not have a CEO after government decided not to renew former CEO Vincent Seretse's contract.

But BTC CEO, Thapelo Lippe, praised Masunga for be MOBILE's phenomenal growth in the past five months, saying the mobile operator had been acquiring about 20,000 new customers a month.

'He (Masunga) has been doing these numbers since May and that's exceptional,' Lippe said.

The growth in mobile customer acquisition was largely boosted by the P15 million be MOBILE splashed last year in Premier League sponsorship for three years. But be MOBILE is still far from breaking even and is operating at a P40-million loss owing to investing in infrastructure development and a billing system.

'We had expected to be making around P70 million in losses at the moment,' Lippe said. 'But at P40 million, we expect to get to zero soon if the trend continues.'

As a former CEO of Orange, Lippe should know what an uphill battle it will be for be MOBILE to be on a par with his former employer and Mascom, or to give them a run for their money.

Mascom has been in Botswana for more than 10 years and announced the attainment of a 1 billion customer base mark last year. But it is unclear whether the country's oldest mobile operator included dormant sim-card holders or active customers only.

be MOBILE has become a hit for Zimbabwean immigrants for its cheaper rates when phoning their native country. Lippe said they would look into enticing migrants from other parts of the SADC region similarly.

The launch of a third mobile operator last year was expected to bring tariffs down as competition for the small but lucrative local market intensified. But save for saturation advertising and high-stakes promos, little has come to the average customer.