Connecting people in Ethiopic

Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. Nokia makes a wide range of mobile devices and provides people with experiences in music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games and business mobility through these devices. Recently, this mobile phone giant launched the first handsets with Amharic features. Capital’s Kirubel Tadesse talked to Levi Girma Wake, Account Manager of NOKIA, East Africa,.

Capital: What do the new Amharic-based mobile phones offer buyers?
Levi Girma: I think that as an Abesha and in general for all Ethiopians here and in diaspora, this is an excellent product. It is very exciting in terms of what this product allows us to do. Actually, it is not just one but five products and will arrive with Amharic key pads as well as an Amharic user interface. This means you will have Fidel (Ethiopic Letter), not just software in the inside as even the key pad has Ethiopic lettering. This would allow anybody to save their contact info in many Ethiopian languages. It also allows you to be able to send and receive SMS in Ethiopian languages. I know it has been a problem in some areas where because of the English user interface, people have not been able to utilize all the features of their handsets. This Amharic interface will make it much easier for Ethiopian mobile users.

Capital: How did Nokia come up with the idea of making Amharic featured handsets?
Levi Girma: This is an effort from Nokia to localize its products, as it has done in other countries. Considering the global telecoms market in general, we expect about three billion mobile subscribers by the end of this year and it should hit about four billion by 2010. Eighty percent of mobile subscribers are from emerging markets and Ethiopia is one of these. What we learned from different interviews and studies in these emerging markets is that the local language and localization in general is really greatly appreciated. It is great in terms of its timing with the millennium celebrations and the expansion works of the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation. This will be good for the country and we will be watching closely how well the products are received by the market. The consumers will have a new experience once the products are available.

Capital: When will the products be available?
Levi Girma: We are currently in the process of bringing the products into the country and we expect to have the handsets available within the next two weeks.

Capital: The SMS Amharic capabilities of the handsets were only available in post paid mobile service; What about pre paid mobile users? Won’t they be able to use Amharic SMS?
Levi Girma: Generally speaking, we feel very confident as we have been doing some testing and results have been very positive. What we want to do is to bring additional handsets and conduct more testing as a final confirmation but we don’t foresee any issues. We didn’t have a chance to test before because the network did not allow text messages to go through, but now that it does so, we have three handsets we are testing and as soon as we get additional handsets, we will do a quick test to make sure everything is working and then deploy the handsets. In both post and pre paid mobile service, Amharic SMS will work efficiently.

Capital: Explain to us what the five new models integrate?
Levi Girma: The models are not specific to Ethiopia or East Africa and it is the local language (the Amharic feature) that is unique. There are five models; Nokia 1200, 1208, 1650, 2630 and 2760. The Nokia 1200 comes with the Amharic interface and an improved flash light. We will provide original Nokia batteries; we learned that there are some issues with some of the batteries available in the market. The Nokia 1200 has two unique features, one is Time Tracker. For example, if one wants to limit the phone call to three minutes, she or he can set that phone call for three minutes. The key pad is dust resistant. The next model which is Nokia 1208 is very similar with the 1200 except it comes with a color screen. The 1650 is a little different; it is more stylish and also comes with an FM radio and a flash light. The 2630 is a balanced, slim design which comes with a camera, Bluetooth, E- mail and GPRS. Lastly, the Nokia 2760 is a stylish ‘fold’ design with dual display and comes with GPRS, MMS, E- mail, VGA camera and video capture etc. All the models have Amharic interface and we will consider how many handsets would have the Amharic user interface and keypad.

Capital: How are you planning to distribute the handsets?
Levi Girma: We have selected Glorious Plc to be our distributors and they will be using the dealer network they are currently creating. Once the products are available, we want to insure that we have wide coverage in the country. It is not just that we provide the products and Glorious distributes. One of the advantages that the market will have is the warranty service which Glorious will be providing and we will work together on that. The warranty service is of one year for all the handsets purchased through Glorious authorized dealers.

Capital: what are your expectations on how well the Amharic handsets will do in the market?
Levi Girma: I think the new handsets are going to revolutionize the way we communicate in Ethiopia. The feedback from the people we showed these phones to is very positive, They will be happy that Nokia has customized the product for their country. I anticipate a very positive response. Since all Amharic handsets will also have an English feature, I think it will be enjoyed by all.

Capital: What will be the price rang of the products?
Levi Girma: The 1200 will be about Birr 447 excluding tax, and all other handsets will be priced somewhere between Birr 447 and Birr 1148, before tax.