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MTN Rolls Out Service Targeting Rural Market in Uganda
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| Source: | allAfrica.com |
| Date added: | 2008-07-31 |
| Country: | Uganda [UG] |
| Sector: | Agriculture | Livelihood opportunities |
| Theme: | Access |
As competition in the telecommunications industry stiffens, players are shifting their focus to the mass market and enlisting rural subscribers. MTN Uganda, the market leader, has now unveiled a new product that promises savings of up 99 per cent on all calls depending on the time and the base station a subscriber uses to call other MTN subscribers.
Mr Erik van Veen, the company's chief commercial officer, told a press conference in Kampala on July 28 that the product, dubbed the MTN Zone, is a sophisticated product that is only unique to the network.
The tariff, which he described as revolutionary and dynamic, will see pre-paid customers making calls for as little as Shs1 per second depending on the time of day and their location.
The new tariff structure, which shows customers the percentage of savings they make directly on their handset screens as they move from one location to another, is the first of its kind in the market. The MTN Zone, Mr van Veen said, relies on software that monitors the amount of free capacity on the network and measures capacity at all base stations in the network.
It determines how heavy traffic is at a particular base station at any one time and sets a tariff accordingly. The product seems to bring about great savings if one makes more MTN-to-MTN calls and lives or spends most of one's time in an area where there are not too many MTN subscribers.
Subsequently, those in rural areas where traffic is lighter will make calls at much-reduced rates.
"The more capacity available, the greater the discount on offer at the time of making the call," he said. Mr van Veen said the service empowers MTN customers with more choice and control over the cost of making calls. He said it has been piloted in Gulu where more 40,000 subscribed in one month.
He said registration and deregistration for the service is free. To activate the free service, the subscriber just enters *135*1# and OK. "It is a unique, dynamic tariff system that sees discounts changing on a continual basis," Mr van Veen said.
The new product comes in the wake of increasing competition among mobile services providers in offering varying discounts during off-peak hours, when call traffic is less. He said the product puts to rest what he described as the ongoing price wars that have besieged the market.
Mr van Veen said that the discount percentage will not affect call costs for customers that have not registered for the discount service.
The MTN Zone has been introduced in four other countries in Africa including Ghana, Swaziland, Guinea Bissau and South Africa.
By: Florence Namasinga and Peter Nyanzi, The Monitor (Kampala)