Powercom wants to be active come Christmas

THE latest entrant into Namibia’s mobile telecommunications market, and MTC’s first prospective competitor in 16 years, Powercom, yesterday announced the appointment of its first CEO.

Mac Allman, who has 32 years of experience in telecommunications, mostly obtained in Europe and the United States, then later in South Africa, will take over the reins of the new company for at least a year. He joins the company from Telecom Management Partner (TMP), a strategic partner of Norway’s Telenor, which owns 39 per cent of Powercom.In his first address to the media since his appointment, Allman reiterated Powercom’s intention to start the rollout of simcards to the coast and northern parts of the country in time for the holiday season.He also explained the company’s position on “number portability”, which would allow consumers to switch from one operator to another without changing their numbers.”It’s an absolute must for a competitively driven environment,” Allman said, “and I’ll definitely push for it.””Monopolies generally resist it, but we understand why they do,” said Allman, whose company is likely to benefit more from such an agreement than the already well-established MTC.Powercom is currently in discussions with MTC on infrastructure sharing, with Allman arguing that this would just make “good, sound commercial sense”.”Just don’t ask me how I plan to compete with MTC,” a smiling Allman said.Powercom was granted the N$65 million licence to become Namibia’s second mobile phone operator in August, after MTC’s 16-year monopoly of the cellphone market in the country.Powercom is a consortium made up of NamPower, Namibia Mineworkers’ Investment Holdings Company (Nam-mic), Old Mutual and TMP.He joins the company from Telecom Management Partner (TMP), a strategic partner of Norway’s Telenor, which owns 39 per cent of Powercom.In his first address to the media since his appointment, Allman reiterated Powercom’s intention to start the rollout of simcards to the coast and northern parts of the country in time for the holiday season.He also explained the company’s position on “number portability”, which would allow consumers to switch from one operator to another without changing their numbers.”It’s an absolute must for a competitively driven environment,” Allman said, “and I’ll definitely push for it.””Monopolies generally resist it, but we understand why they do,” said Allman, whose company is likely to benefit more from such an agreement than the already well-established MTC.Powercom is currently in discussions with MTC on infrastructure sharing, with Allman arguing that this would just make “good, sound commercial sense”.”Just don’t ask me how I plan to compete with MTC,” a smiling Allman said.Powercom was granted the N$65 million licence to become Namibia’s second mobile phone operator in August, after MTC’s 16-year monopoly of the cellphone market in the country.Powercom is a consortium made up of NamPower, Namibia Mineworkers’ Investment Holdings Company (Nam-mic), Old Mutual and TMP.