A new round of telecom price wars appear underway, and analysts are confident that the new battle will continue to assist and help customers benefit from the price cuts. “What we are seeing with Warid and others are efforts to undercut the market and this is going to mean users will get reduced rates and will be able to talk more so it looks like it will be benefiting the people again at the behest of companies' profits,” said Robert Umbabo, a Kampala-based analyst. It comes after Warid telecom, the firm that drew first blood in the price war last year when it cut its rates on voice calls from Ush.8 to Ush.5 and to finally Ush.3 per second has reduced voice call rates within the network to Ush.1 per second, forcing other operators to follow suit. The company announced earlier this month another offer that will see customers receive three times the value of airtime they load. For instance, upon loading airtime of Ush 5,000 and above, customers instantly get a 200 percent bonus. The bonus airtime can be used to make voice calls and send messages as well. A Ush.5,000 ($2.2) scratch card gives one bonus airtime of Ush.10,000 ($4.3) which in essence means one will have total airtime of Ush.15,000 ($6.5) instantly and the same applies to the other denominations above Ush.5,000 ($2.2). Another sector player Bharti Airtel also announced another customer-oriented service where a customer purchases a SIM pack containing two SIM cards with consecutive numbers, reported East African Business Week. The SIM pack according to Airtel's Uganda Managing Director V.G Somasekhar, have “been fitted with a technology that enables a customer to access internet, whether one's phone is wap enabled or not.” Uganda Telecom (UTL) has not been left out in this current struggle as the company also reloaded their endobo product; whereby for only Ush.500 ($0.2), one can make unlimited calls within the network all day long. BM
