A couple of days ago, Zimbabwean firm, G Telecoms (Gtel) announced a partnership with the Safaricom, the biggest operator in Kenya. Gtel would be offering a total of 8 devices in the country with which would all be available on 1-year contract from Safaricom.
Some of the smartphones that would make it to Kenya includes the Gtel A703 Vivo, Gtel SL 5.1, Gtel SL 5.5 and the Gtel Explorer 718. Asides selling with the operator, the company also plans to set up independent stores outlets in the country where it can sell it’s products and maybe provide after sales services too.
Commenting on the launch, GTel Group CEO Chamunorwa Shumba said:
“The business model is similar to what is done in the US and Europe where one does not need to pay full price at once, but rather, one gets a flexible monthly plan that includes: a device, voice minutes, data and more.”
The smartphones would be available in the market by June 2015 and pricing is tipped to be between Ksh 1999 ($21) and Ksh 5999 ($62). Kenya would be the fourth country GTEL has presence in asides Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia.
GTel would be kicking it out with the likes of Oppo, Wiko, Infinix, Tecno, Obi which all have presences in the kenyan market and not mentioning the top brands such as Samsung, Microsoft (Lumia), LG, ZTE and LG.
Update: As at time of posting this, Safaricom has denied entering agreement with G Telecoms (Gtel) but didn’t deny there were talks between both companies. Seem Gtel has jumped the gun with the announcement.
According to a statement released by Safaricom, the company has denied all claims made by GTel, and stated that;
“Safaricom does not have any relationship with GTel, and have asked GTel to retract their statement as it is misleading to subscribers. GTel has made contact with Safaricom; however, formal contract negotiations on its proposal are yet to start.”
We will be on the lookout for development on this.
Image via Techzim
