Spacetel: always on the move [Archives:2004/746/Business & Economy]

By Peter Willems
Yemen Times Staff
Last month it was announced that Spacetel Yemen made another move by installing new technology. With Actix GSM wireless performance engineering solutions, Spacetel saw a major increase in the efficiency of its network optimization.
But according to Walid Akkaoui, Marketing Manager at Spacetel based in Yemen, the company trying to improve on its service and performance for its customers is nothing new.
“We have studied the market, and we found that people want quality coverage at affordable prices,” said Akkaoui. “This is how we have built up our strategy.”
Running neck-and-neck with Sabafon to lead the Yemeni market in mobile phone services, Spacetel has focused on being a pioneer in offering new products in Yemen's virgin market.
“Our strategy has been to always focus on the best coverage and value added services,” said Akkaoui.
When Spacetel entered the market in February 2001, it came out with a variety of services, including Short Message Service (SMS), voice mail, conference calls and call forwarding.
“These services were new at that time, and we wanted to get a wide variety of services to the customers the minute we entered the market,” said Akkaoui.
Last year the GSM operator came out with UniMail. The three-in-one service, which is one of a kind in the market, allows customers to handle e-mail, faxes and voice messages in one mailbox. They can have access to the services by phone or the Internet.
Also out front is Spacetel making it easier for customers to pay their monthly bills. Customers with permanent lines can use Scratch Card Payment by buying a card in many different locations instead of traveling to a Spacetel branch. And Spacetel's Super Clip will ensure that customers do not miss calls. When a customer is out of coverage or the phone is off, SMS will alert the customer of any calls that were not received.
Earlier this year Spacetel was again a pioneer by letting its customers interact with channels on satellite TV. And Spacetel and Sabafon recently launched services that allow their customers to track their packages using the leading courier services.
Another part of Spacetel's strategy has been to expand on its coverage aggressively. This year it plans to penetrate further into the rural areas, which take up the majority of the country's population.
“We have a big plan to expand on our coverage,” said Akkaoui. “Up to now we have covered up to 80% of the population. The plan for expansion is promising because over 75% of the population lives in rural areas. We have always tried to cover more areas because more coverage gains more customers.”
Spacetel's strategy has shown strong results since it started three years ago. Since the end of 2001, its customer base has increased from 68,000 to around 400,000 today.
But Spacetel still faces challenges. According to Akkaoui, the two GSM operators, Spacetel and Sabafon, still take up around the same share of the market. And even more challenging down the road is that the two companies having exclusivity to the market will end next month. It is believed that one or two new GSM operators will enter the market.
Spacetel, however, is not expecting to get overrun by more competition, but is planning to take it head on.
“We did not count on exclusivity. We were aggressive on coverage and value added services way before the end of exclusivity,” said Akkaoui. “In the end the customers will choose the best, and we will capitalize on our experience and what we have provided for our customers.”
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