After several days of rumours that Warid Telecom Uganda was in some sort of crisis, it has now been confirmed that telecom firm has been sold to the Bharti Airtel Group that owns Airtel Uganda, and Airtel firms in 16 other African countries.

Warid no more in Uganda

The India based Bharti Airtel announced in a statement today that they had entered into a definitive agreement with the Warid Group to fully acquire Warid Telecom Uganda.

“The agreement aims to bring together the strengths of Airtel and Warid in Uganda and offer benefits to customers in the form of a superior and wider network, affordable voice and data services, and superior customer care,” said a press release.

Airtel hopes the acquisition of Warid the 3^rd largest mobile telecom provider in Uganda with 2.8 million subscribers will add to their current 4.6 million customers in Uganda and make them a strong force to reckon with. With a customer base of 7.4 million subscribers, Airtel will have a market share of 39% in Uganda’s telecom industry.

“This happens to be the first in-market acquisition in Bharti Airtel’s history. We believe this market consolidation offers great synergies by bringing together the best of Airtel and Warid to better serve customers in Uganda,” said Manoj Kohli, MD and CEO (International) of Bharti Airtel.

Airtel is ranked the fourth largest mobile services provider in terms of customer base globally has operations in 17 African countries, with an estimated 62 customers at the quarter ended December 31at 2012.

But for many Uganda customers of Warid, the worry is on whether all the low price calling, sms and internet packages that Warid was offering will continue, and whether Airtel can continue to push the price down for the benefit of customers as Warid has been doing.

The post Ugandans watch anxiously as Warid Telecom Uganda sells to Bharti Airtel first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.

The company says that many people find themselves in that situation when they need airtime but are unable to find where to buy it, yet they need airtime to make a call or sms.

Sometimes you cant buy airtime and need rescue

Warid telecom today announced a new service dubbed Beera ko, which enables subscribers to access airtime advances for voice calls and then reimburse the advanced airtime upon loading airtime.

The Chief Executive Officer of Warid Telecom, Madhur Taneja says customers can now be rescued out of such situation by loading airtime on credit.

He says their customers who want airtime on credit to rescue themselves can dial *100#, select the Beera Ko option, choose the amount of airtime, which should be between 500 and 1,000 Uganda shillings.

After almost all telecom companies in Uganda reduced call rates to 3 shillings per second from 10 shillings per second two months and similar networks rates of up to 4 seconds per 1 shilling (for those on Airtel Kika and Warid Pakalast), the recent dive into the lowest airtime denominations of 100 and 200 shillings were seen as the last competition frontier but it seems the telecoms still have more tricks up their sleeve.

Warid who ignited the call rate war that saw the major reduction can continue to boast of ‘making it happen’ as we wait to see how other telecom companies will respond to Warid’s latest offer.

Ultimate Media

The post Warid customers can load airtime on credit in new telecom competition strategy first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.