Viettel in a battle over commercial name change

While Vietnamese offer Nextell as the company’s new name, Cameroonians on their part has gotten accustomed to Ca Viettel.

In a series of ads published Tuesday in several newspapers; the daily Le Jour carried the Nextell while the confreres of Mutations stated Viettel Cameroon. While Aurore Plus announced in one of its headline the change of name of this operator. When confronted for further explanations, the parties involved in the project seem to actually not agree with the changes to be made.

A battle seems to ensue between the Vietnamese Party, holder of 70% of the capital, and the Cameroonian part (30%) about the commercial name. Contacted on phone yesterday, representatives of the two partners gave their positions.

On the Cameroonian side, they indicated that they are a little surprised that the press is already talking about the situation. "These are informal discussions between us and no decision has been taken yet," said our source. Although this source did not wish to expand further on the issue, it said that the Cameroonian Party proposes that the third operator is working on the national triangle under the name 'Ca Viettel', in reference to the country.

Because the interlocutor recognizes that the Vietnamese business policy wants that name Viettel reserved for the parent house while subsidiaries use another name, and added that "even if the change of name is made, it will not be immediately. This he said was because, the Cameroonian State has given its consent to Viettel Cameroon and that it has not been indicated to change name before the start of its activities”.

According to the Vietnamese, the trade name proposed for the third mobile operator in Cameroon, according to a source well introduced, is "Nextell. "This name has been filed to OAPI for the formalities for obtaining a patent," says our source. So, for the Vietnamese, there is no debate on the issue.

As per the consequences of this whirlpool over on the effective startup of Viettel Cameroon activities, exclusive holder of an operating licence for 3rd-generation communications (3 G) in Cameroon, officials of the company want to be reassuring: "We will officially launch our activities September 18 without fault. The company's staff even already uses numbers that begin with 6, internally, says one of the officials reached by telephone.