Airtel Nigeria, the famed Smartphone Network has been officially operational in the country since 2010 after its resale for the umpteenth time.
For those of us who were paying attention when the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) hit Nigeria – you know, those days when calls were billed at ₦50 per minute, Sim cards cost about ₦13000, and there was no 3G network or mobile internet to begin with. You’d recall that Airtel went through not one, not two, but
six different iterative resales and identity changes before it ended up where it is now.
Let’s take a look at how Airtel has evolved over the years, starting with the first telecoms company to launch in Nigeria, Econet.
Econet
Econet Wireless was the first GSM operator to go live in Nigeria and the first to be licensed by the Nigerian Communications Commission NCC. This was in
2001 when they were only two operators, the other being MTN. For several reasons, some of which are political, the company had to stop operations and leave Nigeria. Strive Masiyiwa, founder of Econet Wireless, recently took to
social media to narrate the early days of Econet Nigeria and what exactly forced the company to leave Nigeria.
Vodacom
3 years after Econet launched, Vodacom stepped in and took the reins of the company in
2004 with a whole new management changed hands. However, their stay lasted a few months before it was cut short.
Vmobile
Vmobile side-lined Vodacom and took over management of the company in
2004. Vodacom eventually exited the country and Vmobile took full charge. With the new management came new brand logos, marketing campaigns and other gimmicks to convince the now confused subscribers that things were still looking up.
Celtel
After Vmobile’s 2-year reign, subscribers were thrown into another round of perplexity as yet another company – Celtel was taking over operations and management. In
2006, Vmobile Nigeria was acquired by Celtel, another telecommunications company, for about $1billion. This gave the Celtel a controlling stake of 65% in the company.
Zain
Zain Nigeria joined the business of handovers and hand downs in
2008, having completed its acquisition of Celtel for $3 billion. Consequently, the entire African operations of Celtel was rebranded from Celtel to Zain, marking the end of the Celtel brand. Zain was the 5
th company to take charge of the company first headed by Econet.
Airtel
After concluding a $10.7 billion transaction in June
2010, Indian telecoms company – Bharti Airtel acquired the Zain Group’s Africa Unit which included its telecoms company in Nigeria. This led to a fresh overhaul of brand name, brand logo, fresh marketing campaigns and so on. Airtel Nigeria has remained in the country and is known for its good data network and fairly priced plans.
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This article was first published on 4th May 2018
tobenna-ezike
Tobenna is a writer, programmer and musician who is passionate about God, tech, and music. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook by clicking the icons below.
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