Thuraya Appoints SatAfrik as Service Provider for Tanzania
1st November 2004
Abu Dhabi–Thuraya has signed a national service provider agreement with SatAfrik for Tanzania. The Dar es Salaam-based SatAfrik will represent Thuraya in this important East African market.
The Service Provider agreement was signed by Mr Jamal Al Jarwan, Thuraya’s executive manager for business development, and Mr Ahmad H. Saggaf, business manager at SatAfrik.
“The whole of Africa is a prime market for us, representing about 50 per cent of Thuraya’s markets worldwide. SatAfrik already provides rural telephony services and for more than a year they have been our partners,” Mr Al Jarwan said after the signing.
“Thuraya is now addressing the mass market, not niche markets as in the past. We expect to sell about 1,500 payphones in Tanzania from now until the end of 2005,” he said.
On his part, Mr Saggaf said SatAfrik will distribute all of Thuraya’s products and services. “We have been an international service provider for Thuraya for more than a year and this agreement fits very well with the telecommunications plans in Tanzania.
He added that since Tanzania is considered as a virgin market where the telephone penetration ratio is 1:30, Thuraya also expects its Public Call Offices ( PCO) to penetrate into rural areas. While Thuraya’s services will be most convenient for people in Tanzania, the pricing will be cheaper, especially in remote areas.
“We expect to sell at least 2,000 handsets in a year,” said Mr Saggaf, adding Thuraya phones will be in demand in key segments such as mining, agriculture, tourism and marine. Thuraya expects to ink similar agreements with other African countries such as Chad, Ethiopia and Angola shortly.