Netxcell plans Africa foray

Netxcell, a value added services (VAS) provider to the telecom operators in the country, is planning to foray into Africa. The Hyderabad-based firm has tied up with Aquasantec, an industrial conglomerate promoted by an Indian in Africa. Both the companies have agreed to form a joint venture, Netxcell Mauritius Ltd, for exploring the telecom opportunities in Africa. “We have decided to explore eight countries in Africa including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Suda and Burundi. Of these we will tackle three countries this year. We have a bouquet of 12 active products and we will try and offer four products in Africa,” Netxcell CEO Debasis Chatterji said. According to him, Africa has about 450 million mobile users and the average revenue per user there is more than that in India. “It is a growing market. More importantly, the market behaviour in Africa is similar to India,” he explained.