Turf wars persist among mobile giants

Since 1998, Orange Botswana and Mascom Wireless have been engaged in a fierce tussle for market dominance, characterised by innovative marketing strategies and the continual introduction of even more advanced technology and products. In April 2008, a third entrant, beMobile, stormed into the market and by last year, was boasting its own portfolio of competitive products and a rapidly growing subscriber base

The battle for subscriber loyalty has seen all three operators competing in a wide range of products and services for pre and postpaid customers. Thanks to the intense competition, prepaid customers, who comprise the majority of mobile phone users in Botswana, have access to services such as sharing of recharge units between subscribers, call me back facility, lower recharge units and many others. Standard services across all operators include voicemail, call waiting, conference calls, roaming, caller identification and others.