Algerian World Cup fans stay connected in South Africa

IT News Africa

The Qtel Group has a presence in 17 countries and provides coverage to a population in excess of 660 million people, with over 60 million consolidated subscribers across the world. Qtel Group subsidiary, Wataniya Telecom Algerie (Nedjma) enjoys healthy market share in Algeria and is the official sponsor of the Algerian National Soccer team

Given Algeria’s 21-year absence from the FIFA World Cup, a large number of excited Algerian football fans will be making their way to South Africa to cheer on their country. Qtel and Nedjma have been keen to secure best quality, stable roaming and international voice services for the Algerian representatives. Nedjma offers post-paid roaming with three South African operators, Vodacom, MTN and Cell-C, as well as pre-paid and GPRS roaming.

Gateway Communications was selected as the ideal partner for high quality international roaming services and high quality voice due to its extensive coverage in Africa and its direct access to more countries, operators and interconnects across the continent than any other carrier. The agreement allows Qtel and Nedjma to benefit from Gateway’s pan-African network reach and to deliver all Nedjma and Qtel traffic to African destinations in time for the 2010 World Cup.

"The World Cup is going to be very exciting for those able to travel to South Africa to watch the matches. By providing premium quality roaming, in partnership with Qtel, Algerian fans can concentrate on enjoying themselves, knowing that they can celebrate – with their friends and family at home at any time," commented Mike Van den Bergh, CEO of Gateway Communications, "With the World Cup kicking off this week in South Africa, we’re delighted that our partnership with Qtel will allow even more African consumers to benefit from all of our direct connections and what it will mean to our business, connecting Africa to the rest of the world".

Executive Director Mr. Ahmed Al Derbesti in Qtel International Services commented, "We are always on the look-out for partnerships that allow us to provide higher quality services to our customers. With the world cup just around the corner, the eyes of the world will be on Africa. It’s therefore a key time for us to ensure all our customers following this important event receive nothing but the best call quality. To partner with a company with the breath of coverage across Africa and caliber of expertise such as Gateway seemed the ideal choice to ensure this."