Y and Sabaphone companies... a dark future for the telecommunications sector in the liberated areas
English - Saturday 29 July 2023 الساعة 04:34 pm
Aden, NewsYemen, Ammar Ali Ahmed:
Local media revealed the disastrous financial situation of the Sabafon mobile phone company in the liberated areas, which re-sheds light on the failure that has been going on for years in finding a communication network with good services outside the control of the Houthi group.
In September of 2020, the Sabafon company, owned by the influential businessman / Hamid Al-Ahmar, announced the transfer of its management to the capital, Aden, after the Houthi group took control of its headquarters in Sana'a, which led to the division of the company into two completely independent companies with the same name, after separating its network in the liberated areas from the other. Houthi-controlled areas.
Today, after nearly three years have passed, the difference reflects the situation in which "Sabafon - Sana'a" and "Sabafon - Aden" live, the extent of success and failure in the file of communications between the Houthi group and the legitimate government, specifically in the ability to provide 4G service to citizens.
While "Sabafon - Sana'a" and the rest of the other companies in Sana'a were able to obtain this service and provide it to subscribers, which helped it to survive and compete in the market, such as the inability of "Sabafon - Aden" to obtain it, the painful blow to its survival in the liberated areas.
According to local media, the company is now facing the risk of bankruptcy due to its inability to obtain new subscribers in the liberated areas due to its lack of 4G service, which represents the only motive for attracting them, after the company's services were limited to calling and text messages within its network in the liberated areas only with weak internet service. With the second generation 2G.
It is noteworthy that the talk about the risk of bankruptcy of "SabaFon - Aden" coincided with the stumbling block that the Y company is facing in the liberated areas, despite its obtaining 4G service from the government service provider, "Aden Net".
Subscribers in the capital, Aden, confirmed that the "Y" company has completely stopped providing them with 4G internet service since the beginning of this month, only 7 months after the company officially launched its business in the city, on the promise that it will expand to include the liberated governorates during this year.
While the company has not yet issued an official statement about the reasons for its suspension, there have been conflicting reports and information about the real reasons for that, between talk that the reason is due to updating the company’s system and starting to implement the packages system after the majority of the past months have been providing free internet and calling services, and between conversations confirming Aden Net stopped providing the company with Internet service.
Far from the authenticity of these accounts, however, what is certain about the failure of the communications file in the liberated areas is due to the continuous failure surrounding the government provider of the 4G service "Aden Net" 5 years ago, which prompted the government recently to enter into a partnership with an Emirati company, to save the company, which is a step that faces opposition from political forces and influential parties, revealed the scale of the conflict over this file.
