Mobile phone service provider Celtel International - a Zain subsidiary - has expanded its roaming service offer to 12 African countries.

The roaming service is now available in Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Malawi, as well as the Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

The expansion of One Network will enable half of continent's mobile phone subscribers to communicate across national borders without incurring extra costs, the company said in a statement.

It means One Network - the world’s first borderless mobile phone network - covers an area more than twice the size of the European Union. Since its launch more than two million people have already used the service.

“The innovation behind and the expansion of the world’s first borderless mobile phone network is a reflection of our dedication to the African continent and its people. We have revolutionarised telecommunications in Africa and we intend to roll out this service to more of our operations on the African continent and in the Middle East,” said Zain Group Chief Executive Officer Dr Saad Al Barrak.

“All Celtel’s customers both prepaid and postpaid in the 12 countries from East, Central and West Africa, will be able to use this service. They can move freely across geographic borders making calls and sms at local rates and receive incoming calls free of charge. They can top-up their prepaid phones with locally-bought airtime cards which can be bought at more than 500,000 points of sale. The One Network service is automatically activated upon crossing into any one of the other countries, with no prior registration required or sign up free charged,” the company said.

“One Network is now available to more of our customers and makes it easier for them to communicate with their family, friends and business colleagues, making their life better,” said Zain Group Chief Commercial Officer Tito Alai.

The extension of One Network is crucial to Zain’s strategy of ensuring that their customers in Africa are connected through one borderless network; an initiative that has not been done anywhere else in the world. Additionally One Network plays a crucial role in helping to promote and boost cross-border trade while driving economic growth in East, Central and West Africa, the company said.

Commenting about One Network in September 2006 The Economist, said: “Celtel has, in effect, created a unified market of the kind that regulators can only dream about in Europe.” – TradeArabia News Service