According to the Benin minister of Information and Communication Technologies, the mobile network company Areeba, formerly known as Benincell, cannot shift to MTN without prior formal notice to the regulation authority of telecommunications in Benin; as it is clearly written in articles 4 and 6 of the convention signed between the government and the four mobile network companies in the country.
"If MTN is willing to operate in Benin by the intermediary of Areeba, the regulation authority must be notified and necessary documents must be made available so that the authority could be able to assess whether MTN is technically equipped to deliver good quality services at affordable price to the final consumer. It's also important to check if MTN is financially able to invest in the development of this telecommunication sector once it takes control of the network," the minister explained.
But despite the prohibition of the official launching ceremony of MTN, some changes occurred on Areeba network which proves that MTN has effectively replaced this mobile network. An evidence of this change is that the vocal server that interacts with Areeba subscribers changes into MTN. Moreover, Areeba subscribers have been receiving SMS's since 15 June, informing them that MTN is the new company that will be their mobile phone service provider. MTN commercials have also been aired across all the media channels and biggest panels of the country with the substantial message: 'Y'ello Bénin. Aujourd'hui Areeba devient MTN. A message which literally means: Areeba has become MTN.
Faced with what the regulation authority qualified as the "stubbornness" of Areeba managers to respect telecommunications conventions in Benin, the government summoned Areeba to forward all the necessary files for denomination change to the regulation authority by 21 June.
The government said that should Areeba fail to respect the decision within this time limit, "it will decide the shutdown of their service until they satisfactorily complete the formalities required." The same ultimatum applies to Moov, another mobile network company which was previously established in Benin with the denomination Telecel.
In a letter sent to the ministry of communication, the director of Areeba explained that their actions could not be judged illegal because, in a correspondence dated 9 May 2006, they had previously asked for the authorisation of the ministry of communication before concluding the process of their company's association with MTN.
In Benin, four mobile network companies cover more than 7 million people scattered on 112,600km² of land. From the sum of 120 million CFA in the year 2000, the licence fee was raised to 30 billion CFA on 6 June 2007, after an evaluation of the sector had been carried out by the regulation authority.
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