Business

Why Tecno Pioneered Dual-Sim Phones In Africa

Tecno Vice PresidentVice President of Tecno Group, Arid Chowdhury said power challenges and the fairly nascent Telecoms infrastructural development across the continent influenced its design of mobile cell products in 2006 when it entered the African market.

He said the company pioneered the Dual-SIM phones when it was controlling barely one per cent of the mobile phones market in the continent.

He told journalist this week in Lagos that the company’s offerings in mobile voice and data technologies which include: smart phones, tablets and feature phones ranges are enjoying huge popularity and adoption in Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan Africa.

He said the company has tremendous confidence in the African market, adding that it has always had a huge purchasing potential and can build a strong affinity for value driven products of brands which understood the peculiar needs of the African market space.

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Chowdhury noted that the Tecno is such brands that understood Africa’s unique infrastructural challenges and consumer behaviour and tailored their products to meet this significant market. “In 2006 when TECNO Mobile entered the African Mobile OEMs space there were existing top global brands already operating within the African space. However, none of these global brands factored in According to him, many of the mobile voice operators at the time had infrastructure that struggled to deliver quality voice connections across a wide range thus the advent of Tecno’s Dual-SIM products,” he said.

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According to him, Tecno Dual-SIM philosophy for Africa is hinged on the fact that telecommunications infrastructure for land lines service is underdeveloped and overburdened and cannot meet Africa’s overwhelming need for voice service and the fact that many African consumers demand a mobile device that can hold more than one SIM card.

He further warned Nigerians to be wary of some cheap phones in the market, saying most of them are counterfeit phones and are dangerous, “some of them may explode, some of them have high radiation, they are not approved by SON they cause serious damage to the user both short and long term use. SON is having a serious crack down on this and it is a very good move as we have to safeguard our health and our future,” he stressed.

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He said despite the dominance of other phone in the continent at the time Tecno entered the continent, Tecno a relatively small OEM vendor at the time, has become an accepted and robust competitor with it’s low-end mobile devices that offered value at affordable rates.