Orange Jordan’s Ghossein moves across to Kenya

Mickael Ghossein is set to stand down as CEO of Orange Jordan next month, and move across to the French telco’s Kenyan operation as CEO of Orange Kenya, Comm. can reveal. Ghossein is a France Telecom veteran who was appointed Orange Jordan CEO in September 2006, having headed mobile operator MobileCom until December 2005, and then having been appointed executive vice president of Jordan Telecom Group prior to becoming CEO of the integrated operator.

Ghossein has presided over the integration of Orange Jordan’s previously separate business lines of wireline, wireless, broadband and carrier services.

Ghossein is set to head to Kenya having steered Orange Jordan through its integration programme

Orange has been focusing on convergence in its Kenyan offering through its 51 per cent stake in Telkom Kenya in a transaction that it completed in December 2007. The French telco has slowly been undertaking a transformation of the business, which resulted in the introduction of the Orange brand in Kenya in September 2008.

Telkom Kenya launched GSM mobile services in September becoming the country’s first integrated provider of mobile, fixed-line and Internet services.

Orange Kenya signed a national roaming agreement with the country’s largest mobile operator Safaricom, while broadband Internet was initially available in the cities of Nairobi and Mombassa.

Prior to the launch of Orange’s mobile services in Kenya, and according to Mobile World database, Safaricom and Zain Kenya collectively counted 14.3 million subscribers as of June 2008, representing a penetration rate of 39 per cent. A fourth company backed by Econet Wireless launch earlier this year.

Orange’s emphasis for its Kenyan network in 2009 is to offer simplicity through such services as customer care to educate end-users and to demonstrate services. However new dealer commission structures implemented this May, may threaten some of the operator’s distribution channel reach.