Vodacom gets fully in touch with DRC
Although this market also provides a good return on investment, it is the impact that the cellular industry has had on the lives of Congolese that makes Vodacom Congo’s presence in the DRC important.
A civil war ravaged the country for about six years until 2002, leaving millions of its estimated population of 60million displaced.
With almost non-existent roads and telecommunications infrastructure, expensive air travel and extremely time-consuming river travel are the only ways to access towns in this vast central African country, the size of Western Europe.
Most people cannot afford costly air tickets and travelling on a barge can take months.
“Through the Vodacom investment, today over 1.8million Vodacom subscribers are able to trace displaced family members.
“Relatives and friends can communicate throughout the DRC as well as with family living abroad,” said Maré.
“I believe Vodacom is playing a key role in reuniting this country."
Vodacom has roaming agreements with 349 roaming partners in 158 countries.
Vodacom Congo set up office in the DRC in 2001 when telecommunications penetration stood at a mere 0.2%. At that time, its main competitor, Celtel, provided coverage only in main centres such as Kinshasa and Lubumbashi, just a speck in a vast geographic expanse. The average price for a national call was 0.40US cents and 0.70US cents for international calls.
Today, penetration is estimated to be around 6%, but Maré highlighted the fact that because many Congolese own two cellphones, the real penetration rate would realistically be around 3%, making opportunities for future growth even better.
“Setting up office was very challenging, but our key objective was to provide
world-class telecommunications services in the Congo, the Vodacom way — which embraces excellence on all levels” he said.
Over the past four years, the total subscriber market growth increased from 150000 to just over 3.8million for all network operators in the DRC.
Subscribers can now make local calls for 0.26US cents and pay 0.40US cents for international calls.
Vodacom Congo has a market share of 49% with over 1.8million subscribers, followed by Celtel with 1.4million.
Vodacom Congo’s base comprises 99% pay-as-you-go subscribers and has close to 22000 public phones in the market.
One of the biggest challenges for Vodacom Congo was setting up its network.
Faced with a situation of non-existent or damaged roads, equipment had to be flown across vast distances.
With very little or no infrastructure to back up the company, 85% of these sites run on generators, which adds to the high operating costs.
Maintenance costs and capital expenditure are also very high due to the lack of infrastructure. For example, should one of these sites go down, in some instances it would take technicians about a week to access it because of the difficult terrain.
Currently Vodacom Congo covers 188 towns and has one of the biggest satellite networks in the world, with 102 links supporting its own transmission.
“Vodacom’s driving force is its network coverage and its affordable pricing, resulting in its spectacular expansion backed up by a world-class distribution model,” Maré said.
Many obstacles had to be overcome for the company to achieve these results and key among these was the setting up of an effective distribution network throughout the country.
Maré said the company started with what he calls “an electronic voucher distribution system”, where airtime was dispatched throughout the country via terminals. Altogether 98% of vouchers were distributed in this manner.
Lately it has supplemented this technology with the Voda-E process, a USSD-based system that sends air time to the distribution channels.
“It basically operates like an SMS to allow people to recharge their phones through this service. This has lowered our cost of distribution and enabled us to distribute any denomination of air time anywhere in the Congo,” Maré explained.
With an investment of over $323-million in the past four years, Vodacom Congo is one of the biggest investors this central African country has seen in the past 30 years.
This year alone, said Maré, the company would spend close to $63-million on its expansion strategy.
“We were one of the first to invest when Congo was still unstable.
“We took a long-term view of the country, recognising the business potential and our results speak for themselves,” he added.
Taking a cue from its slogan, “One Nation, One Network”, Vodacom Congo has embraced its social responsibility to the country.
With a programme based on four pillars — education, health, welfare and environment — it focuses on improving the lives of Congolese and has already invested $1.8-million in the community.
Some of the projects it has taken on include building two schools from scratch, refurbishing seven others and rebuilding four hospitals.
The company has a bursary programme “Moto Molo” that annually selects the 10 best students in Congo to further their studies at the Tshwane University of Technology.
“We are very excited and proud of this programme,” Maré said.
“The students do a one-year bridging course in the Congo before departing for South Africa, where they study technology and engineering.
“We also guarantee them a position at our company once they have finished their studies.”
This transfer of knowledge, combined with on-the-job training for its staff further strengthens the team of 460 Congolese employees, who range from technicians to directors, he added.
Inet-Bridge
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