Ugandan analysts are hopeful that the recent moves within the country's telecommunications sector will continue to grow the industry and deliver better services to its users. Speaking to Bikyamasr.com/IT News Africa, an analyst with the country's ministry of telecommunications said he believes the recent movement made will help create new opportunities to develop the industry as a whole. “We are confident that throughout the past year or so that progress has been made in developing the overall framework for the IT and mobile markets in Uganda and expect greater success to happen in the coming months and years,” said John Mukape. He argued that as companies roll out new offers to clients, it will help buttress the success that has seen mobile penetration grow dramatically in the past two years. “We have seen the mobile industry grow by leaps and bounds and the companies on the ground here are understanding how useful it can be for Ugandans to get into the market,” he added, pointing to government statistics that say mobile penetration in the country has risen by more than 50 percent in the past three years. “I envision this to keep moving forward as telecom operators push into rural areas and tackle a population that had been initially outside the telecom boom,” he argued. On the ground, telecom operators in the country are hoping to boost their profile through numerous initiatives, including educational promotions. Warid Telecom introduced this month a new university admission package that analysts say will create an impact on young people through technology and IT. “What Warid is doing is boosting their grassroots image through the university package and it will likely mean other companies will have to offer similar ideas or be left behind,” said Yomna Mukhari, an education and IT specialist in Kampala. She added that educating the youth on technology “is an important step in the country's ICT future and it will also help create more customers for companies so it is really a win-win situation for all of Uganda.” According to Warid, applicants for the program can apply to public universities and check their application status using the new service. “It cuts down on the time that many prospective students must wait before knowing whether they are going to get into the university,” said Mukhari. She argued that while it doesn't monetarily give to the company, it will help “give them a sense to the people that they care about the welfare of Uganda's citizens, so then these users will become lifelong subscribers to Warid.” Following Warid's initiative to help students know their status for university is galvanizing other telecom operators in the country, who are expected to launch similar services in the very near future. Ironically, all this comes on the heels of massive price wars that dramatically changed the overall nature of the telecom industry in Uganda. Mukape says that the price wars have given Uganda the edge in terms of users ability to gain the services that should have been given to them for years, but which companies had refused due to worries of price constraints. “The university initiative is part of the larger goal of delivering new services to customers at cheap costs in order to create a more universal telecom sector,” he said, adding that “throughout the price wars each company was looking for the next edge in the battle to win over customers. “Now we are witnessing first-hand how the price wars are going to help buttress other sectors of the Ugandan economy and this should be seen as an overall positive impact of the battle,” he continued. For people like Mukhari, new initiatives are likely to continue to look at education as a key component for growth. She said that through educating the young people in the country and delivering new and innovative IT projects, it will “create a sense that staying in Uganda and working from within is a good idea and one that all young people can get behind.” Warid and other telecom operators in the country continue to battle over Ugandan users and the price battle and advertising campaigns are not likely to end in the near future, said Mukape, but he is hopeful that the country can find a balance between the operators in order to stabilize the economy and push it forward. “It is easy to launch new initiatives like the university status check, but it also shows that through innovation, Uganda can combine the telecom sector with day-to-day needs of the people and this will generate greater revenue and more telecom and IT activity which spurs growth,” he argued. Ugandans are definitely happy about the current state of telecom in the country. A group of young university students told Bikyamasr.com/IT News Africa that without the reduction in prices, they may not have even bothered for university, but now, as the economy improves, they want to make an impact. BM
