A Critical Connecter in Africa’s Ecowas Region
Amultifaceted connectivity services provider, Ecoband’s story is one that continues to develop across both its home market of Ghana and the wider region.
Entering the West African market in 2001, the company quickly built up its market share, bringing fresh competition and new technology to the market and challenging longstanding large corporations to offer more competitive prices. In 2005 Ecoband became a licensed operator in Ghana following the introduction of the first subsea network cable in West Africa, a key turning point from which the firm has never looked back.
“From this point we moved beyond simply being a reseller of other companies’ products and services to a licensed operator,” explains Alexander Sulzberger, CEO of Ecoband Group.
“We have been buying capacity on the cables that land in Ghana and have formed long-term relationships with carrier partners who use us not only in Ghana but also Ivory Coast for last mile connectivity services to their corporate customers.”
Partnering with leading providers of communication equipment and services, Ecoband offers comprehensive and flexible satellite, microwave and fibre optic solutions for internet backbone connectivity as well as broadband and MPLS services.
A regional and international expert
Now firmly established, the next chapter of Ecoband’s journey is to build on its capability and reach both in the region and internationally.
Indeed, the company now has offices in Accra (Ghana), Kumasi (Ghana), Abidjan (Ivory Coast) and Amsterdam (Netherlands) where its holding company is headquartered, a platform from which it can grow into markets in these nations and beyond.
“We are using the brand and knowhow we have built up over the past 15-20 years to start new operations or acquire existing ISP businesses in the sub region,” Sulzberger adds. “We are in Ghana and Ivory Coast and are looking at the likes of Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal and Liberia to either start afresh or acquire a partner who would like to profit from our brand and expertise.”
Ghana acts as an ideal template to roll out across the region, the company owning and operating its own satellite and wireless radio network and working extensively with the likes of CSquared to install fibre optic networks, the Google-owned enterprise being its favoured provider of infrastructure for last mile delivery to corporate customers.
Central to this success is an unwavering approach to customer service, a factor which Sulzberger believes sets Ecoband apart from its competitors.
“We have always been focussed on the quality of our service,” Sulzberger states. “I see a lot of startup and established ISPs reduced to a shadow of their former selves due to the fact they don’t invest into human resources and technologies focused on customer relations.
“For me, this is one of the most important facets of a connectivity business, and one of the key reasons we have been able to expand out of Ghana is because we have built up close relations with international partners like PCCW Global, GILAT and Sonema for whom we carry out a lot of services.”
These observations are backed up by the company’s impressive customer base, the firm serving as a key supplier to many international brands with operations in multiple African nations, footprints which Ecoband can grow into as it moves into new markets.
Among the leading multinationals the company serves are KPMG, Allianz, Fidelity Bank, Societe Genrale and Merck.
CSquared – a fruitful partnership The aforementioned CSquared is another important partner. It entered the Ghanaian market in 2016 having successfully established itself in Uganda and has disrupted the last mile market. Helping to bring faster, more reliable internet to the people and places that need it, the company is both a customer and supplier of Ecoband.
“They approached operators directly and the Ghana Internet Service Providers Association and offered licensed operators their services, looking at what assets may already be in the ground and in need of operating more efficiently,” says Sulzberger.
“Ecoband was one of the first companies to sign and implement a service contract with CSquared, a timely move because we were receiving more and more demand from local and international customers to deliver fibre.”
Today Ecoband has around 100 deployed sites with CSquared in Ghana, and for Sulzberger, the priority moving forwards is to build on this so far successful collaboration. Indeed, CSquared is targeting Liberia as a new market to enter, a country which the CEO of Ecoband is eager to obtain an operating license in.
“We are now set up to become a premier B2B ISP and data network operator,” comments Sulzberger. “We will use our existing contracts with international companies and leverage partnerships with multinationals who are in multiple countries in the region to expand our presence.”
Having proven itself as a reliable, quality and customer-driven operator since it first arrived in West Africa in 2001, Ecoband is primed to extend its influence and become a renowned connectivity brand both regionally and internationally.