Has MTN Lost it's way?

[dbnnet]

MTN the better connection.
Vodacom the best connection

It's not about who has the better connection ......
(MTN's fully integrated technology is vastly superior).
but rather who has the better management.

Unfortunately, MTN's current top management comes across
as rather dysfunctional to say the least.
Some years back when Bob Chaphe (CEO) was running the show
MTN was a slick and efficient company with staff morale at
an all time high. They "owned" the profitable and up-market corporate
business, which is now no longer the case.

Today it is obvious that things are not going as well at MTN.
Their slow and unresponsive reaction to Vodacom's Data pricing
and Blackberry solution shows that they are purely in reactionary mode.

One piece of advice for MTN : Return to Bob Chaphe's formulae of
focusing on the customer. Currently this is very lacking in all
departments, including the crucial issue of technical support.

Oh.... and while you are at it.... please bring back Bob Chaphe

 

[mc721221]

hear, hear!

 

[MTNBroadband]

On the subject of MTN's Blackberry, I saw an TV advert for it this weekend, i.e. it has actually launched as such. Another thing to note, is that shortly before Vodacom announced that they'd launched Blackberry, there was an article [online] that mentioned MTN had Blackberry working @ WWB in Sandton, although that could've been strategic to semi-coincide with Vodacom's Blackberry launch...

Blackberry did launch commercially last weekend (10 April) in the press.

The point is that MTN had already gone live with strategic customers (including WWB) when our competitor announced they were first. We merely wanted to correct the record. It made sense to go wide a little later after trialing with customers and tweaking the product.

 

[MTNBroadband]

It's not about who has the better connection ......
(MTN's fully integrated technology is vastly superior).
but rather who has the better management.

snip

We developed our broadband strategy some time ago using a multi-bearer approach. Our strategy was leaked to the press early last year and did lead to a lot of media attention at the time. We have stuck to our strategy and rolled out extensive EDGE coverage. The sheer number of EDGE users and wider coverage are in a different league from other data technologies. We have timed 3G to coincide with a new generation of 3G network technology as well as an increase in the variety, features, quality and cost-benefits of the handsets. When we launch 3G, internet users with dual (EDGE/3G) handsets such as the Nokia 6630 can fall back seamlessly onto an EDGE 'cushion' with comparable data speeds , whereas the 3G-GPRS falloff is definitely not a good customer experience .

From a customer perspective we launched MTNLoaded mid 2004 and have over 1.5 million registered customers which substantially higher than comparable services.

On the corporate customer perspective we have MTN Corporate Mobility which is probably staffed by one of the highest-morale areas within MTN with the number of new private APNs coming in every week

We look forward to going from strength to strength.