Who is the 4G King?
February 11, 2021 2:46 am | Posted in Business News | Share now TwitterFacebook
By Kizzy Kalsakau
Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Barlen Lutchmoodoo claimed that Vodafone is the optimal 4G provider in Vanuatu during the launch of an information video in Port Vila recently.
CEO Lutchmoodoo told Daily Post the company invested VT3 billion on coverage and upgraded from second generation (2G) network to fourth generation (4G), meaning faster, secure and more reliable internet access.
“Today we have 5G but 4G is giving big capacity in terms of speed, people in Vanuatu with good 4G coverage are enjoying 30MBPS (megabytes per second) speed, you can compare that five years back it was 1 MBPS, speed was very slow,” the Vodafone CEO said.
The Vodafone CEO since 2019 mentioned said they consider themselves equal with competitors regarding coverage, however, when it comes to 4G, there is no disputing who the best is.
“We are much better in 4G coverage island-wise, our 4G presence is much stronger than our competitors, I think we can say we have the best 4G network in Vanuatu.”
The best 4G claim by Vodafone did not sit well with Digicel CEO Deepak Khanna, he fired back stating that they were the first to introduce 4G and Digicel is expanding with latest technology.
“I cannot comment on what he said, but I can always talk about is my own network, we continue to expand with the latest technology, customer vouch for it.”
“So if we call ourselves the Bigger Better Network, it is all thanks to our customers, they know who is the better network,” CEO Khanna said.
The Digicel CEO dubbed his company as a vibrant business that consistently provides promotions that competitors cannot compete with.
The former Digicel CEO of Nauru and Tonga explained: “Clearly from a data perspective where in the world and region you can get eight-gigs a day and none of our competitors are in even close to the kind of offer we give to our customers.”
“We definitely give a far superior value in terms of the product.”
2021 plans according to CEO Khanna, who was also appointed in 2019, said an expansion is in the pipeline and improvements in the digital network will be provided to customers.
Vodafone’s retort was a contingency plan involving generators for solar powered transmitters, when the transmitters are down the generators will serve as back-up in the outer islands, thus keeping those in the islands connected.
