DAILY NATION

JANUARY 9, 2013

Telecom company Orange has signed a deal with PesaPal that will allow its subscribers to purchase airtime through the internet.

Customers will use their debit and credit cards and other modes of electronic payments to purchase airtime through the e-commerce platform. Technically, subscribers will be able to use their mobile money accounts from rival telecom firms to purchase Orange airtime.

“Our customers that may have subscribed to other networks due to their voice offerings will now have the flexibility of purchasing data bundles directly from their mobile money accounts,” said Orange chief executive, Mickael Ghossein.

He added that the new agreement will supplement Orange’s traditional airtime distribution channels while catering to a growing number of multi-SIM card holders. Eventually, the PesaPal payment system will be extended to cover other products and services that Orange offers.

The new deal may boost Orange’s data market share in data. The company’s hold of the voice segment in Kenya remained flat at 0.8 per cent in the last two quarters of the 2011/2012 financial year.

Although the company is one of the larger players in fixed data, it’s market share in mobile data fell to 8.8 per cent in June 2012 down from 9.5 per cent in March 2012.