Technology The Transformation of Airtel Nigeria – Visualizing The Different Changes in Ownership ProvisioAugust 10, 2020026 views Why We L👀ked Into This »🎨 It is almost 20 years since telecommunications licences were given to GSM (Mobile) operators in Nigeria. We designed a timeline to summarize the journey of the telcos. Airtel has gone through different changes as a brand. These visuals chart the changes the company had gone through. Econet Wireless In December 2000, Econet Wireless Nigeria Ltd (‘Econet’) was among the initial 5 applicants that bid for the auctioning licencing exercise held in January 2001. This was a company from Zimbabwe that was listed on the Zimbabwean Stock Exchange at this time. Econet started its GSM operations on the 7th of August, 2001. Transition Dates of Airtel The change in ownership of Econet Wireless Nigeria Limited became a subject of litigation. Each previous owner spent an average of 2 years. Vodacom had the shortest time-span of a 2-month ownership after terminating an agreement with Vee Networks Limited (previously known as Econet Wireless Nigeria Limited). In 2006, Zain acquired 65.702% of V-Mobile in Nigeria. However, MTC (as it (Zain) was then known) rebranded the network to Celtel. Celtel was further rebranded to Zain in August 2008 (In the Middle East, Iraqna and MTC-Atheer merged in 2007 which led to a Group new identity called Zain). Bharti Airtel entered into an agreement in 2010 to acquire Zain’s interests in Africa. The latter sold its operations in 15 African countries to the former. Airtel has been the longest owner of the network in Nigeria. This year (2020) makes it a ten-year stay of ownership in Nigeria. The Taglines of Airtel ‘Life’ or ‘about you’ is a dominant feature of the previous owners of Airtel Nigeria. This indicates that the previous owners had an element of personal touch to their consumers. Econet and Zain talked about the consumers’ world. Vodacom and Celtel talked about the consumers’ lives. V-Mobile was all about the consumer. Airtel’s present tagline is the first tagline that uses an object (smartphone) to describe it. Seeing Through Red As at the time Vodacom took over in 2004, they had the blue, green and white color combinations. Today, Vodacom uses Red and White. Zain was the only previous owner that had a completely different color from the previous tradition of either blue or red. Red is the most featured element in previous owners of Airtel Nigeria. 3 out of the previous 5 owners used this color option on their brands. Today, Airtel is also branded with the red color.