Airtel launches 3.75G service

Accra, Jan. 18, GNA - Airtel, Ghana’s fastest growing mobile phone network, on Wednesday launched its 3.75G service, an upgrade of the 3.5G, to offer world class third generation experience to consumers.

“The 3.75G technology will give our customers the opportunity to interact with data in a different way,” Mr Philip Sowah, Managing Director of Airtel Ghana, said at the launch.

“This is why Airtel doesn’t see the 3.75G as a product but a platform that enables the community to expand its social and commercial horizons, alongside the rest of the world,” he added.

The mobile phone company, Mr Sowah said, had introduced several data bundles that addressed the needs of the youth, the homemaker or family person.

It also consistently monitors the network to ensure that customers experience the best quality in the network.

Airtel, which was the first telecommunication company to launch the 3G service in Ghana, said the launch of the 3.75G platform “promised profound” changes to how subscribers would experience the web on internet-enabled devices.

“The improved technology will enhance multimedia functionality, high speed mobile broadband and internet access; allowing users to send and receive emails and download music and other large files from their devices at very fast speeds,” it said.

The Airtel 3.75G is the latest global HSPA+ technology with 21mbps, also being rolled out in Europe and the USA. HSPA+, Evolved High-Speed Packet Access, is a technical standard for wireless, broadband telecommunication.

“It is the fastest 3G available and will be enormously beneficial for a variety of users, which include large corporate bodies, small and medium businesses and the youth,” Airtel said.

The Head of Corporate Communications and External Affairs of Airtel Ghana, Mr Donald Gwira, said the expertise and experience of global technology leaders, Ericsson, ensured that Airtel delivered the best customer experience in Ghana.

He added that the 3.75G platform would allow subscribers to combine the enormous potential of the internet with the convenience of cellular phones and other devices.

Mr Gwira said among the enormous advantages of the 3.75G service was that it would “liberate the potential of the youth through enabling fast access to the internet for learning, sharing, social networking, creating and accessing content like music”.

“For the small and medium business, it will enable the entrepreneur to embrace a highly mobile way of working with high speed access to email and internet and it will allow large companies to increase productivity through vastly enhanced mobile internet speeds and access to record and allow for communication via video calls on handsets.”

Airtel said it had remained committed to deepening its network coverage and bringing communication opportunities to rural populations that, until now, had been left out of the telecommunications revolution.

“This will work in tandem with the availability of 3.75G to ensure that Airtel can provide Ghana with a level of internet access across the country that can help bridge the digital divide.

Main One Cable, the first submarine cable company offering open access, wholesale broadband capacity in West Africa, which provides Airtel with cables for its operations, lauded Airtel for taking this step.

“I do know that Airtel’s 3.75G is indeed fast and it is an improvement over the 3G service they were the first to launch in Ghana,” Mr Joseph Odoi, Country Manager of Main One Cables said.

“We have been working with Airtel long enough to know that one of the hallmarks of the company is innovation and improvement,” he added.