Investcom’s subscribers up 86%; Areeba Ghana subscribers exceeds 2 million

Lebanese-based mobile group Investcom, which South Africa’s MTN Group acquired in July for USD5.5 billion, has reported an 86% year-on-year rise in total subscribers to 6.14 million at the end of June 2006. Investcom operates GSM networks in Ghana, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Cyprus, Benin, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia and Afghanistan, offering services under the Areeba brand name. It said that subscriber growth was driven principally by the recently launched Sudan unit as well as operations in Syria. Its subscriber base in Ghana exceeded two million while the new operation in Guinea grew faster than anticipated with 115,000 subscribers at the end of June. Areeba Afghanistan launched commercial operations last month and has reported that it signed up almost 60,000 users in its first six weeks.