MTC subsidiary Celtel International, a leading pan-African mobile telecommunications company, has expanded its One Network, the world’s first borderless mobile network.

The network will now include the Republic of Congo, Gabon and Democratic Republic of Congo.  This comes nine months after the successful launch of One Network in East Africa.

In September 2006, Celtel made history by breaking boundaries and offering its customers in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda the opportunity to move freely across geographical borders without roaming call surcharges and without having to pay to receive incoming calls.

This initiative made news worldwide as it was the first time a mobile company was able to completely remove traditional roaming charges and offer its customers the same services abroad that they could access in their home country such as airtime credit transfer (for prepaid customers) from friends and family; voicemail and customer service in their local languages.

Following the East Africa One Network launch a great proportion of customers in the region are now benefiting from the service, said a spokesman.

Speaking last September in Kampala, Nairobi, and Dar es Salaam during simultaneous press briefings, Celtel told the public that this was only the beginning of their efforts to connect Africa as no other mobile phone operator has been able to do to date, and that their efforts would not stop within East Africa. Under a year later this promise has been realized by expanding the service to include three other countries within Central Africa, he said.

Commenting on the expansion of One Network, Moez Daya, chief executive officer of Celtel International said: “We are delighted to bring 160 million people from East and Central Africa closer together through One Network. In a region historically dependent on freedom of movement across borders, we are now offering a communications solution that fits the needs of our customers, breaking down barriers and making life better for businesses, families and individuals from West to East. We have made the service easy to use and convenient by putting in place more than 140,000 places where our customers can buy airtime.”

Following the expansion of One Network the only change for users within East Africa will be the introduction of the three new Central African countries; Republic of Congo, Gabon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Following today’s One Network extension into Central Africa, post-paid and pre-paid Celtel subscribers in all six countries will now be able to make calls at local rates, receive incoming calls free of charge and top-up their pre-paid phones with locally-bought airtime cards. Alternatively, Celtel's prepaid customers may top up their accounts with airtime prepaid cards they have brought from their home networks, whether in the Republic of Congo, Gabon, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Tanzania or Uganda. The One Network service is automatically activated upon crossing the geographic border into one of the six countries, with no prior registration required or sign-up fee charged. - TradeArabia News Service