by zain and then airtel founded 1998 defunct 08 september 2007 headquarters amsterdam netherlands key people mo ibrahim chairman products g.s.m. related products website www.celtel.com celtel was a telecommunications company that operated in several african countries . it was founded by sudanese born mo ibrahim . contents 1 history 2 one network 3 acquisition 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit celtel coverage in africa . dark blue countries are where the celtel brand is not used . originally known as msi cellular investments the company began operating in 1998 . in january 2004 the company name was changed to celtel international . in april 2005 the company was acquired by and became a subsidiary of zain formerly the mobile telecommunications company . at the time it was purchased by zain in april 2005 celtel had about 24 million subscribers in 14 african countries . on 8 june 2010 the company was purchased by bharti airtel from zain . on 22 november 2010 it was rebranded as airtel . one network edit in september 2006 celtel launched one network the world s first borderless network across east africa this was possible due to the gateway license for data which kenya data network had acquired . kdn provided celtel with a cross border link to uganda and with trunk capacity to belgacom . with these links celtel was no longer required to pass its traffic through the gateway of the monopoly in kenya . one network enabled its subscribers in kenya uganda and tanzania to roam free between these countries thereby scrapping roaming charges making calls at local rates receiving incoming calls free of charge and recharging with local top up cards . 1 in june 2007 celtel s one network was extended to gabon the democratic republic of congo and congo . the one network automatically activated upon crossing the geographical border into one of the six countries with no prior registration or sign up fee . in june 2007 celtel international announced plans to add three more celtel country networks to its one network . the additional countries were malawi sudan where it operated under the mobitel brand and zambia . this further expansion brought the coverage of one network to nine of the 15 african countries in which celtel operated . 2 on september 2007 celtel s parent company mtc group adopted a new name zain arabic for beautiful good and wonderful unifying its different brands in 22 countries . 3 on october 2007 celtel international acquired a 75 % stake in western telesystems ltd westel from the ghanaian government for 120 million us dollars . 4 on 22 november 2007 celtel doubled its one network countries from 6 to 12 countries by adding burkina faso chad malawi niger nigeria and sudan . 3 in april 2008 zain planned to expand its one network across its 22 operations by end of june 2008 . 3 the one network is still operated in africa today by bharti airtel in association with zain and cell c. acquisition edit on march 29 2005 zain group then known as mobile telecommunications company mtc announced that it would acquire 85 % of celtel international for us 2.84 billion with the option of acquiring the remaining 15 % after two years for us 520 million . 5 this acquisition dampened the thought that the pan african mobile communications group would list its stock on the london and johannesburg stock exchanges through an ipo . 6 august 1 2008 saw the entire african operations of celtel being rebranded from celtel to zain . this marked the end of the celtel brand . 3 see also edit mobile telephony in africa bharti airtel airtel africa zain celtel africa challenge references edit nkonge mwila 2006 09 29 . east africa celtel scraps roaming charges in east africa . the post zambia . post newspapers limited . retrieved 2015 08 26 . barigaba julius 2007 06 26 . sudan cross border pioneer celtel eyes sudan malawi zambia . the east african . nation media group . retrieved 2015 08 26 . a b c d zain about us milestones . zain group . retrieved 2015 08 06 . celtel acquires stake in ghanaian firm . the citizen . 2007 10 26 . retrieved 2015 08 26 . mtc completes acquisition of celtel in 13 african countries . zain group . march 29 2005 . retrieved august 26 2015 . prof. giddy ian . case study the acquisition of celtel an african company s choice ipo or sale . new york university . retrieved 2015 08 26 . external links edit zain home page airtel homepage retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title celtel & oldid 715702537 categories telecommunications companies of africacommunications in kenyatechnology companies established in 19981998 establishments in kenyahidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction 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