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Datatel Boss Outlines Schedule
(Concord Times (Sierra Leone) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Very recently, Concord Times embarked on examining the new trend in telecommunication development in Sierra Leone, gingered primarily by the influx of new technology drive into the sector. The most recent telecommunication company to join the competition in the country is DATATEL.
Their boss, Ogoo tells what stuff they are made of and which heights they aim to attain.
Mr Ogoo, before we get started with this interview, can you give us a brief history of Datatel?
We started Datatel, when we introduced the pre-paid 155 calling card sometime ago in the year 2001. And that came about as a result of the difficulties by then to make international calls.
People had to queue up probably at ungodly hours. So we saw that this was a situation that we could bridge easily by introducing the technology that could address the situation. Then we brought the pre-paid 155 calling cards. Immediately we brought that service, we brought smiles to the faces of many Sierra Leoneans who had the opportunity to make international calls directly from their bedrooms twenty-four hours a day.
As an indigenous company, did you get any support from the government of the day? If you did, what was the nature of support, tax waiver or what?
Well, yes, I think it is the policy of government to support any industry or institution of this nature that wants to engage in such businesses.
Government normally gives concession, which we have certainly enjoyed. We were granted a little bit concession for all equipment brought into the country to set up this business and we are very grateful for that.
We know that because of the technology that you have introduced, people have been attracted to your services. For instance the reasonable tariffs, the Internet via CDMA cell phones and many more. Based on this, could you give us an idea of your subscriber base?
It is very good for you to know that Datatel should be viewed as a three in one company. We have launched the GSM mobile phone, which is similar to Millicom, Celtel and the likes. We also have the CDMA mobile phone and facilities for landline. These are the three businesses in one. As a result, in total capacity we are talking about forty eight thousand (48,000) subscribers for the three sectors.
We must thank you for introducing the CDMA technology into the Sierra Leone telecommunication market. CDMA supports a lot of facilities that makes it different from the GSM, like full multimedia and broadband Internet. Tell us, which of these facilities are readily available for the users of your CDMA network as we speak?
Yes! According to our market set up survey prior to the launch of the CDMA, the demand was more for data and telephone and that's what we have introduced.
The multimedia is also a vital component of the CDMA but people need to know that in order to enhance the multimedia, first and foremost you must have a mobile that has GPRS enablement so that you can enjoy the facility of multimedia transfer like sending picture messages and the rest. We have very limited phones that have this facility to enhance that service, but the switch we have has the capability to deliver that.
You just said that a lot of people do not have GPRS enabled phones meaning they cannot maximize the multimedia services on your CDMA network. But as a businessman who wants to make profit, if we have more GPRS enabled phones, you will consequently have more people on your CDMA network. Now, what have you done to make sure these GPRS enabled phones are within the reach of your potential CDMA network subscribers?
You see, selling of mobile phones is not one of the core businesses of Datatel. We believe we have to share our businesses. So that is the issue for the private sector doing mobile phone sales. They have to know the need to invest in this type of phones that have these capabilities. But nevertheless, we as a company are trying to bridge that gap by making sure we make available these phones which are a bit more sophisticated .I believe the facilities will benefit certain sectors especially the media which is one of the sectors we are targeting, and as we speak, we are making all necessary arrangements with the vendors to give us some customized technology that will enhance the features that we will make as donation to the media to enhance their professional duties.
If we must go further on this, CDMA is a technology, which is very new, here and sophisticated as you said. A substantial number of the people of Sierra Leone do not know what this is, let alone putting the facilities to good use. What plans are you putting in place to sensitize them so that they can utilize and enjoy your CDMA network?
Again, based on our market research, we are now trying to streamline the services and at same time develop some documentation that will be able to teach people so that they will be able to do it themselves.
So we are strategizing in that line and recruiting some staff on temporary basis who will explain to people in their various localities. We have empowered them with some gadgets that they can use practically for demonstration. We are also trying to go on campaign in the various educational institutions like FBC, Milton Margai and others. We have sent out letters to them telling them about the intention to hold workshops on their various campuses so that people can actually see how these things work.
Your network supports Internet, doesn't it?
Yes! that's right.
What I have seen so far is about 115kbps speed.
You know that your big subscribers are the big institutions, government agencies etc. the speed that you have is definitely not enough for maximum satisfaction in very big networks that potential subscribers have. I do not know what bandwidth you give but I do know a lot of people want to use fast Internet, broadband technology. Have you been able to deliver broadband that you promised?
I want you to know that as we speak, we are the biggest data service provider in Sierra Leone. We have a total capacity of 5 megabytes as compared to other companies that have just 1 megabyte. In a layman's language it is like comparing a one-inch pipe with a five inches pipe. That is what we control. Again we have what we call the bandwidth manager, so basically we provide the service that the customer wants. If you tell you and us are ready to pay for the service you will have it. We give customers what they actually require but we have the capacity to give up to 5 megabytes. And the way our systems are designed, it is unbelievable we use the latest state-of-the-art technology to deliver our services. So the efficiency is there.
So when do you plan to extend your mobile services upcountry?
Apparently our projection is calling for this April. Immediately after our launch, we were studying the efficiency of our network and doing network optimization. We found some problems that must be addressed. To be specific, we discovered some small lapses between Hastings and Waterloo. So we have to develop new cell sites to cover that area. We also discovered a little problem behind Regent, which is another fast developing city. So we also thought that it is time we fixed that. As we speak now, we can put to rest that we have covered the immediate environs 100% with 100% efficiency. And then we will move upcountry. The commercial cities of Bo, Kenema and Makeni are our next priorities. We may have about two months delay, but in June we shall be there.
Talk about your dealership, we have not seen much of them around. When will they be up and kicking?
As we speak again, our cards are available .Our agents and dealers are all operating. If you walk into any supermarket and other retail outlets, you would find our services.
What prompted you into telecommunication business when you and I know that you are not an engineer.
Well as you see, I look at myself as an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is somebody who has vision regardless of discipline. I think we have the vision. With vision, you can do everything provided you are intelligent. I will tell you for free, I basically championed most of the areas that expatriates should have come in. I did it and you can see how successful I have been. So it is a matter of intelligence and dedication.
Judging by the fact that you are very new company, how do you intend to cope with competition especially with those that have been in the business for long with wealth of experience?
As far as I am concerned, I do not think we have competition because what we are doing is unique.
I will tell you that we are miles away from the so-called competitors because they are just providing a fraction of what we are doing. We have the total solution. If you want complete satisfaction, your choice has to be Datatel because we give you choice and data. What everyone needs is choice and data to communicate.
If we may digress, you are a telecommunication entrepreneur. In Nigeria, there is the NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission), an independent regulatory body that is like a referee among players. It is also like that with other countries. In Sierra Leone, there is nothing of this nature. The consequence is that you people encounter problems e.g with interconnectivity, the subscribers suffer outrageous tariffs, they do not have any say with regards to services provided, and there is malicious rivalry among mobile service providers. Africell for instance is not in good terms with Comium, and as a result, the tariff to Comium subscribers is different. That is uncalled for and certainly out of hands. Now, we know how it has gone, the bill sent back and forth from parliament to ministry. What is the latest development on this scenario?
You are right. It is a worrying issue. Again we need to know that Sierra Leone has just emerged from war. Being a stakeholder in the business, I have first hand information on this. Government of Sierra Leone is making frantic efforts to address the issue of independent regulator. The government currently is being supported by the international telecommunications union (ITU). They are providing the ministry with some technical advice on how to set up this body through their representative here. In short, we were also part of the making body to put this plan in place. As we speak, ITU has donated millions of dollars worth of equipment for the setting up of the body. These equipment will help in terms of how to supervise and analyze frequencies, spectrum misuse etc. this is a good sign, but I think they need to speed up. It is high time the body took up office because we are falling victims from time to time. For example, if you want to connect to another company, they will simply tell you 'we don't have the capacity'. But if we had regulator, they will mandate them to provide access to competitors. In the absence of that we are suffering these set backs. We just hope that the parliament will look speedily into the matter and get the regulator set up.
This venture that you have embarked on is capital intensive. How did you manage to get the funds? From your pockets or did you get any support from any institutions?
Banks support Datatel. We were able to get three banks to come together to Support this lucrative business opportunity. Sierra Leoneans should be grateful to see an indigenous company taking this height. So far the comments that we have received from competitors are signs of victory. One said to me "Ogoo your strategy is working". A lot of people say "Salone man nor sabi du business". We are proving them wrong. We are opening doors for indigenous businesses to come in and succeed. History will be rewritten because for ages, Sierra Leoneans were denied access to heavy bank loans. We will succeed.
So are your funds from local or international finance institutions?
We have both. The local banks that funded us are Rokel Commercial Bank and Sierra Leone Commercial Bank that we are so grateful to.
It seems that there is some form of disagreement between your company and Sierratel. Can you tell us if this is true?
I wont say we have problems with Sierratel. Very soon maybe today or tomorrow, you will see the link between Sierratel and Datatel. The only thing is that we have an issue, which we believe both parties could not sit together to address. It is a straightforward issue and it is in the books. We are partners in development and I can assure you that we do not have any serious disagreement.
Your weekly free international calls. People have started grumbling of connectivity. The people want to know why?
Like I told you earlier, we have 48,000 subscribers. Imagine 48,000 people trying to access international in a system that can only accommodate about 240 simultaneous calls. So the traffic will be high. That is it. What we are trying to tell people is that we do not see why cost of telecommunications should be so high. Those who travel abroad can justify that. London to America costs nothing. These providers can provide services at the same rates but they do not want to do it. We will prove that it is possible here.
When is this free call Service going to end?
It is never going to end. It stays as Datatel lives, but there will be a threshold. As soon as we reach the targeted subscriber base, we close the door.
Let's say for argument purpose, the target is 50,000 subscribers. Once it gets to 50,000, we close the door so that the first 50,000 people will continue to enjoy the facility.
We have noticed that there is interconnectivity problem between your company and Millicom. What could be behind this?
It is not much of a problem. The problem is with protocols. Protocols are languages that interface use to communicate. Because Millicom is using R2 switch which is an old technology and we are using signal 7, a new technology. The protocols don't seem to understand themselves. What we want to do is to have an interpreter or translator between our switch and Millicom switch. Our engineers are working seriously on that anyway.
We have not seen much of Datatel in the print media. I do not know if you have a special package for publicity because the tempo is high, people are getting connected to your network. To sustain that spirit, you must create Datatel consciousness and awareness using the media. What's your plan?
I must confess, I believe so much in the media because it is through the media you can speak your language. It is regretted the way our advertisements were done on the print media sometime ago. I was not impressed. It looked like they favored the big guys.
So we have decided to adopt new strategies with a difference, and it is going down well. I like to stand out from the rest. If you ask me, telecomm adverts are all the same. Our concept is different-massive billboards and others. I will also sell my strategy to the media on how to promote Datatel. One thing I believe is that media is money making. You guys have to put in more efforts. You will do well. If I have extra cash, I would invest in the media. I am not a journalist but I will do it.
Lastly Mr Ogoo, people are skeptical about your background. Some say you are Nigerian. Can you clarify that today?
I am 100% Sierra Leonean. The name may sound a bit Nigerian, but you can feel my mother tongue. I have got landmarks that prove I am Sierra Leonean.
Ogoo farm, where I live, Ogoo lane Brookfields where my family house is, Ogoo fields and others. So I am a son of the soil.
On behalf of Sierra Leone media, I thank you very much Mr Ogoo for the audience and we hope that Datatel has come to stay. We promise to give you our fullest support as long as it brings smiles to the faces of Sierra Leoneans.
You are welcome.
Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media. (allafrica.com)
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