We have stopped activating new SIM cards — Vodafone
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Vodafone Ghana, Mr Haris Broumidis, has disclosed that the company has finally ceased the activation of new Subscriber Identity Model (SIMs) from now until July 31, 2014.
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He said Vodafone had a discussion with the National Communication Authority (NCA) to explain that there were SIM cards that had already been bought by vendors and it was therefore impossible to stop the activation of the SIMs instantly and, therefore, pleaded with the NCA to give the company some days to mop up the SIMs from the market, which was granted.
Mr Broumidis revelation in an interview with the GRAPHIC BUSINESS on June 19 was in response to earlier investigations conducted by the paper which revealed that in spite of the ban by the NCA, Vodafone was still activating the SIMs sold to customers by the company’s vendors.
He said Vodafone had always complied with directives and, therefore, made sure SIM cards were not given out to distributors after the NCA had directed the company not to register any new customers until July 31.
He said as part of the company’s plans to dry the market within the period, it had started buying back the SIM cards from the street vendors.
Reason for network outage
Mr Broumidis said the network outage was caused by an electrical surge which resulted in six boards in three routers not responding correctly as a result of a defect on the boards.
He added that the company had replaced the six boards that caused the outage and had also replaced 11 other boards in order to improve the resilience of the network for the future.
“All services for both fixed and mobile have been fully restored and we are very pleased to say that beyond the networks coming back to normal, our traffic have also been back to the usual levels,” he said.
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Compensation
Mr Broumidis said Vodafone had compensated its prepaid customers while its enterprise customers would be compensated at the end of the month.
He said compensation for its prepaid customers was between GH¢2 and GH¢5 based on the spending of the customer while enterprise customers would also receive discounts on their bills at the end of the month.
“The compensation was set and agreed with the NCA,” he explained.
Some customers of the company have, however, described the compensation as “nothing to write home about” because of the way it was sent to them.
One subscriber, Mr Joojo Banson, said: “I am on Supreme Value and I pay a fixed amount at the end of the month that gives unlimited call time. On the day Vodafone is refering to, I saw a message that read that I have 20 minutes free talk time on-net but that meant nothing to me because mine is fixed and already paid for.”
He asked NCA to check some of these things and “ensure that the telcos it sanctions do the right things when they are to compensate their customers.”
Investments
The CEO also disclosed that Vodafone, since the acquisition of Ghana Telecom, had invested US$700 million towards improving the network.
He said in 2008 when Vodafone acquired 70 per cent of Ghana Telecom, it had 300 cell sites but could now boast of 2,000 cell sites.
“We have invested not only in the sites but on the call network, the radio network, the systems and the capabilities as well,” he said.
He was of the view that that was what had given Vodafone Ghana a market share of over 20 per cent and also rated second in the country.
He said Vodafone intended to deploy more than 400 additional sites and cover all districts in Ghana by the end of the year. GB