MTN Ghana has launched a new facebook page that allows its customers to interact with the company on facebook absolutely free of charge. Chief Marketing Officer of MTN Ghana, Rahul De told Adom News it would be an avenue for MTN to also address customer queries online. “Facebook is a place where a phenomenally huge numbers of people have access to the internet and what we intend to do is to address queries online on 0.facebook.com/mtngh so that if other customers have similar queries, they also have access to the answers, unlike when customers call 111 and the answers given benefits only one person at a time,” he said. The launch was virtual, and the first telecom service done live on radio and online simultaneously. A group of telecoms and ICT journalists were given an experiential session of how the new MTNGhana facebook page worked. Rahul De noted that in-house research showed that several Ghanaians, most of whom were MTN customers had facebook accounts and had been browsing a lot on facebook, but also wanted the opportunity to do so for free. He said 0.facebook.com was the strongest driver for mobile internet access at zero cost, adding that MTN Ghana, with over 10.5 million subscribers, found it exciting to give its customers the opportunity to link up with friends and family at no cost on Facebook. The MTN Ghana CMO said even though the page had just been launched, a revamped version had already been uploaded and customers could go there and post their comments and queries and MTN back office staff were waiting to give instant responses. Rahul De said 0.facebook.com/mtngh was as a result of at least two months of market studies and talks with the managers of Facebook in the UK to come up with a zero-rated service, through which its customers could have access to facebook and interact with their service provider, friends and family without paying anything. He noted that the page is primarily targeted at the MTN customers in the rural communities who were mainly casual users of facebook and do want the service for free. “But there is always a fuller version of facebook on facebook.com, where customers could go and pay and browse away from the MTN page, but once the customer is on the MTN Ghana page through 0.facebook.com it is for free,” he said. Rahul De noted that MTN had the capacity, on the back of its three switch and data centres in the country, to provide and support high speed internet access to subscribers, adding that “our WACS (West Africa Cable Systems) submarine cable which has just been launched commercially provides high bandwidth to our numerous subscribers.” The company promised to roll out WACS in Ghana in the second quarter of this month, which ends this June, but it has assured the public it is still working on some technical and operational issues and communication about the roll out would be out soon.