MTN Seamless Roaming debuts in West Africa

MTN launched Seamless Roaming on a pilot basis in Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin and Ghana.
MTN launched Seamless Roaming on a pilot basis in Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin and Ghana.

West Africa just got smaller. Literally. MTN, a leading telecommunications company in Africa has just launched a new service named MTN Seamless Roaming on a pilot basis. Though this name (MTN Seamless Roaming) is less funky than their usual product brands, it is in my view, the best value added service they ever launched. The announcement about this new service was made by MTN Ghana on 6th November 2008.

Hitherto, one had to pay through the nose to roam in West Africa. One paid to make and receive calls. Receiving text messages was free-of-charge, but sending text messages was impossible. With MTN Seamless Roaming however, one can receive calls for free, send text messages, make calls at local rates and recharge airtime using local recharge cards when roaming on any MTN network (4 countries presently) outside one’s home network.

MTN would later extend this service to their other networks in Africa and the Middle East. The MTN Group currently has operations in 21 countries: Botswana, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, Iran, Afghanistan, Benin, Cyprus, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Republic, Liberia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

I knew MTN would implement this service, ever since Zain (then known as Celtel) launched the world’s first borderless network aptly named “One Network”, in 2007. Zain currently has operations in 22 countries and roaming across their networks is seamless, for users in any of the countries they operate.

Well, though I know competition push MTN to this, I can still commend them for the courage it took to abolish the roaming fees. It is only sad that crossing West African border countries by road is still so very difficult but businesses like MTN, Ecobank, Zain are playing their part with the Ecowas dream.

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Oluniyi D. Ajao
Oluniyi D. Ajao is an Internet Entrepreneur and Tech Enthusiast based in South Africa. Follow him on twitter @niyyie for more tech updates.

52 Comments

  1. It’s MTN we’re talking about here. My personal experience with this company is that they value financial profit far above customer satisfaction. I just hope we start benefiting from this service soon. I wonder, will the MTN Zone discounts also apply to Roaming calls? That would be swell 😀

  2. The MTN Seamless Roaming is really helpful most especially with the assurance that you can make calls at your local rate and receive calls at no cost. But MTN still need to work on their roaming service if they expect more customers to patronize them especially with their bad record of exploitation…
    I’m currently on MTN roaming in Ghana from Nigeria, although I still have problems receiving and making calls nevertheless I have been receiving SMS.
    When my friend asked me to activate the service I did not know that the service is now available for all. And interestingly between Nigeria and Ghana I was online and at the entry of each country I received text messages welcoming me and even providing details such as the local time of these country including the Nigeria High Commission’s number in Ghana!
    It is a good servi

  3. I sent messages via the 0803 network,but no 1 delivers after they take their pay…..thats not enough,i recharged with N200 but i could only talk for 7mins to the same 0803……i think da 0803 network has now decided to scam 9gerians….this is terrible:evil:……..the most annoying thing is that u’ll call their customer care 4 the whole day and u will never get response……..0803 should be a network 4 animals and not humans

  4. I sent messages via the 0803 network,but no 1 delivers after they take their pay….thats not enough,i recharged with N200 but i could only talk for 7mins to the same 0803……i think da 0803 network has now decided to scam 9gerians….this is terrible:….the most annoying thing is that u’ll call their customer care 4 the whole day and u will never get response……0803 should be a network 4 animals and not humans

  5. pls since four days now we cant load mtn card to ghana line in nigeria, if you load any denomination instead of increasing,it will depreciat to a lower rate, can i please know the problem and solution to it

  6. It is a good thing but i want to know in details how i can buy an mtn chip and roam my line immiediatley i get to the country where i want to use it?for instance if i have to go to Ghana and i leave in Nigeria but i decide to buy a sim and get to ghana before activating it ,will the seamless work that way? tmonelro Nigeria

  7. HELLO
    HOW I CAN NOT MAKE CALLS WITH MY ROAMING MTN CHIP WITH NUMBER +4915151395785 IN GHANAN HERE SINCE I RETURN GERMAN..
    I ALWAYS NOTICED CALL FAILED PLEASE TELL SOMETHING AND HELP…

  8. i would like mtn to help roam my mtn number to south africa line.i love mtn and will always use mtn.my number is0542965247

  9. Good day Sir/Mad, i am mtn customer from Ghana could you please give me a direction how to activate my mtn Nigeria in Ghana
    Isaac

  10. How do I recharge my Nigerian MTN SIM Card in Ghana? I wish to maintain it. Is it possible to recharge my Nigerian SIM with a Ghanian Recharge card? because getting a Nigerian MTN recharge card here in Ghana is quite elusive. I am currently in Ghana But i am from Nigeria.

  11. Hiya!!! I just wants to know how i can activity my MTN Ghana sim card 2 roaming in da uk please has i want 2 maintain the same sim card rather then gettin a new sim…..I leave in da uk but do go back home a lot. Many thanx

  12. how can some recharge mtn nigeria sim while in ghana.my mum is in ghana and she been unable to recharge her line due to to the tarrif traffic guess,can some1 tell us wath to do

  13. The conversion rate for local airtime is N162.60 to 1 GH Cedi, where as the exchange rate is N104/GHC1, this is an absolute ripoff on the part of MTN, do they have a different forex regime from that of the rest of the world, how did they arrive at such rate? This must be redressed by the regulators

  14. i wanna roam my +234803xxxxxx5 number in d uk but i dont know how to do it

    Blog owner edited out the phone number due to privacy concerns.

  15. I am so happy to find a website like yours.. pls can u tell me how i can recharge my zain ghana here in nigeria.. I tried calling the customer care in nigeria on to no avail.. my stay in nigeria is making me sick.. thank yu

  16. I wonder why the NCC is not addressing the rip off in terms of exchange rate disparity. MTN shamelessly has its own exchange rate regime different from the international and globally acceptable exchange rate, I wonder if the company can agree to this rate if it was against them in terms of their relationship with Banks, creditors, debtors and international partners.

    And to think that MTN makes so much noise (like they all do) on CSR, while conducting business in the most unethical ways is totally condemnable and appalling. MTN, connecting people, cheating people.

  17. I tried to load 2 GH Cedi recharge to my Naija MTN line here in Ghana but they seized the recharge card. The frustrating thing is dat I can’t even reach d customer service with my Nig MTN. No talk & my 2 GH Cedis gone.

  18. please how can i re-active my mtn accra line cux am comin back to accra i dnt want buy any line again,secondly i hve being tryin to top up credit on my mtn line, it’s not responding is it because my activated line is no longer activate that made it like that, pls help me out….

  19. please how can i re-active my mtn accra line, cux am comin back to accra i dnt want buy any line again,secondly i hve being tryin to top up credit on my mtn line, it’s not responding is it because my line is deactivated? pls help me out….

  20. hello Oluniyi,

    please i would like to know in details how to load a ghana mtn recharge card into my nigerian mtn line. i tried using the normal way “*555* pin number” we load in nigeria but it said the card has been used or does not exist. please assist with the process.

    regards
    linda from lagos

  21. I have. Nigerian mtn credit. Have tried loading it into ghana sim using *222*recharge# but it is not working. Mtn call line 111 is also just playing music. What can one do?

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