MTC relaunches multi-media service

MOBILE telecoms service provider MTC will be rolling out its new multi-media service (MMS-C) again next week after the initial service collapsed within a few months after installation on December 22 last year, MTC CEO Bengt Strenge said yesterday.

Some 10 500 MTC customers with camera-enabled cellphones were unable to send pictures after the MMS-C service started failing in January this year. By May, the service had deteriorated so much that MTC decided not to charge customers for it anymore because “it simply did not work,” Strenge said in an interview yesterday.The American supplier of the service, Glenayre Technologies Inc, was in fact three weeks late in installing the equipment and application software at a cost of N$3 million, Strenge said.The company won the tender in April 2004 against bids from five other companies, which ranged from N$2.4 million to N$15.3 million, Strenge said in sketching the background to the current situation.About a month later, Glenayre’s Pakistani sub-contractor TeleDNA – which developed the software – tried to push MTC to increase its licensing fee by about N$4.3 million, claiming that the MTC system was overloaded.The additional fee that Glenayre was charging would have doubled the cost it had tendered, Strenge said.He disputed the overloading claim, pointing out that MTC had invested over N$700 million in infrastructure over the past 10 years, and had committed itself to another N$200 million investment.”Towards the end of May 2005 Glenayre could not come up with a satisfactory solution… and it became clear that we could not rely on Glenayre as a reliable partner,” Strenge said.As a result, the service was put out to tender again in June, and was eventually awarded to German supplier Siemens in partnership with a company called Technomen.Glenayre had also submitted a bid, but was far more expensive than before and it wanted to charge for every new type of cell phone that the system had to be configured for, Strenge said.”The Siemens offer includes all of this in their package,” he said.For the time being, the MMS-C service will be restricted to Namibian users, as changes to roaming agreements with other foreign service providers still had to be finalised, he pointed out.Initially, the service would probably provided free of charge, other technical staff indicated.MTC has declared a dispute with Glenayre and the matter was now heading for court, Strenge said.Glenayre and TeleDNA could not be reached for comment.* John Grobler is a freelance journalist; 081 240 1587By May, the service had deteriorated so much that MTC decided not to charge customers for it anymore because “it simply did not work,” Strenge said in an interview yesterday.The American supplier of the service, Glenayre Technologies Inc, was in fact three weeks late in installing the equipment and application software at a cost of N$3 million, Strenge said.The company won the tender in April 2004 against bids from five other companies, which ranged from N$2.4 million to N$15.3 million, Strenge said in sketching the background to the current situation.About a month later, Glenayre’s Pakistani sub-contractor TeleDNA – which developed the software – tried to push MTC to increase its licensing fee by about N$4.3 million, claiming that the MTC system was overloaded.The additional fee that Glenayre was charging would have doubled the cost it had tendered, Strenge said.He disputed the overloading claim, pointing out that MTC had invested over N$700 million in infrastructure over the past 10 years, and had committed itself to another N$200 million investment.”Towards the end of May 2005 Glenayre could not come up with a satisfactory solution… and it became clear that we could not rely on Glenayre as a reliable partner,” Strenge said.As a result, the service was put out to tender again in June, and was eventually awarded to German supplier Siemens in partnership with a company called Technomen.Glenayre had also submitted a bid, but was far more expensive than before and it wanted to charge for every new type of cell phone that the system had to be configured for, Strenge said.”The Siemens offer includes all of this in their package,” he said.For the time being, the MMS-C service will be restricted to Namibian users, as changes to roaming agreements with other foreign service providers still had to be finalised, he pointed out.Initially, the service would probably provided free of charge, other technical staff indicated.MTC has declared a dispute with Glenayre and the matter was now heading for court, Strenge said.Glenayre and TeleDNA could not be reached for comment.* John Grobler is a freelance journalist; 081 240 1587