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Celtel Kenya Takes Battle for Supremacy to the Skies

After battling to win over mobile-phone users by lowering the cost of calls, Celtel Kenya is now offering customers in the region in-flight communications through two companies.

By Rebecca Wanjiku

June 23, 2008 — IDG News Service —

After battling to win over mobile-phone users by lowering the cost of calls, Celtel Kenya is now offering customers in the region in-flight communications through two companies.

The Zain Group, the parent company of Celtel Kenya, signed a roaming agreement with OnAir, the in-flight passenger communications company, to enable customers to make and receive mobile-phone calls on aircraft equipped with the OnAir system. They can also send and receive e-mail and SMS (short messaging service).

The agreement follows a similar one with AeroMobile that allows Celtel users to make calls on aircraft equipped with the AeroMobile system.

The OnAir system is available on Air France and has been launched in Jordan. It will soon be launched in Kenya, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Gabon and Nigeria, said Saad Al Barrak, Zain Group's CEO.

AeroMobile offers its customers in-flight roaming on Emirates Airlines, which operates several routes in Africa.

Benoit Debains, CEO of OnAir, said more airlines are expected to adopt the system and make it a standard passenger offering in the coming months.

The system is designed not to interfere with aircraft systems and to meet appropriate safety requirements. The technology ensures that passengers' mobile phones operate at their minimum power setting to allow secure use and avoid interference with telecom networks on the ground, Al Barrak said.

Celtel has been involved in a campaign to promote its "borderless" network that allows users in 14 African countries and part of the Middle East to make calls at local rates.

Dubbed the Celtel One network, it incorporates Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The Middle East countries include Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan and Sudan.

Celtel Kenya hopes to consolidate its position ahead of the expected entry of two mobile service providers by the end of the year. Telkom Kenya’s Orange and Econet wireless have already commissioned Eriksson to supply equipment.

Celtel Kenya, which is involved in a mobile-call price war with Safaricom, has 6 million subscribers, compared to Safaricom’s 10 million.

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