Mr. Pierre Marais, director, sales and marketing, Multi-Link/Telkom said the company’s subscriber base has recorded an exponential growth since Telkom acquired 75 percent equity in Multi-Links from 200,000 to 900,000.
Marais disclosed this at the presentation of Kia Rio car to Miss Theresa Onyokoko who emerged winner in Multi-Links/Telkom win a car promo. In a draw held in Lagos last week to conclude the promo, 20 of the 30 subscribers who qualified for the draw won N5,000 worth of airtime, while four subscribers won 32" LCD Television.
He explained that, at inception in 2007 Multi-Links offered services, mainly voice, in seven locations of Lagos, Sagamu, Ijebu-ode, Abeokuta, Ibadan, llorin and Abuja. "Our total customer base was about 200,000. We had an optical fibre cable from Lagos through Ibadan on to Abuja serving as our backbone which connects our various areas of coverage," he added.
Multi-Links/Telkom he said have covered the Southwest of Nigeria more than any other fixed line operator, establishing presence in places as diverse as Gbongan, Osogbo, Akure, llesha, lle-ife amongst others. "Today, our customers make calls on our network at Lokoja, Okene, Kano Abaji, Zaria and we are still counting," he stated.
He noted that the length of their optical fibre has increased tremendously. The cable has extended from Abuja through Kaduna, Kano to Kastina in the North while the East bound section has got to Benin and Warri. "We have installed new switches in Lagos and Abuja to cater for our anticipation of making quality service available in all parts of the country within the next 12 months. As part of our mandate to further positively impact the 1CT sub sector, we are boldly entering the data service market which is an area not yet fully addressed by the operators," he said.
According to him, they are leveraging on their experience as a part of the Telkom SA group to provide services which will make internet more available to the vast majority of Nigerians at lower cost.
Marais explained that as part of the new initiatives, they are establishing a new call centre at Gbagada centre. The call centre he said will introduce new solutions to service delivery and will involve its relocation to a bigger and modern structure designed for contact activities. The centre he noted will have a whole range of facilities which will include conveniences, canteens and even support recreational activities. "It will also feature CT1 integration and intelligent call processing along call automation solutions. By the time we complete this task, it will be a reference point and we plan to replicate this in other parts of the country," he said.
Mr. Ian McGregor, executive director, advertising and promotions, Multi-Link/Telkom, said that the promo practically demonstrate that between them and their loyal customers, Multi-Links/Telkom is poised to make a difference in their business relationship. "We are going to witness more of this customer appreciation programmes as we go on expanding the network and bringing in more subscribers," he said.
He said, the decision to buy into Multi-Links by Telkom South Africa, in 2007 was strategic and premised on a desire to move 1CT in Nigeria into the next level leveraging on rich background of Multi-Links as platform to achieve this goal.