Yesse Oenga Celetel Uganda Managing Director

The Managing Director of Zain Uganda, Yesse Oenga today launched the 200 Uganda shillings recharge card to enable Zain subscribers buy airtime at the lowest rates.

He said research in the telecom consumer market had shown that affordability was a key factor in increasing access and usage of mobile telecommunications in Uganda, which prompted Zain to reduce the amount of money someone needs to have in order to make a phone call.

Oenga said Zain’s strategic 200 shillings airtime scratch card will allow customers to make a phone call for at least a minute, thus availing more communications options for the customer.

Both Zain, MTN Uganda, Uganda Telecom, Warid Telecom and Orange Uganda have been having 500 shilling recharge card as the lowest airtime card a customer can purchase.

The post Zan introduces 200 shillings airtime to cut in on competitive telecom market first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.

Bharti Airtel, which is India’s leading telecom services provider announced on Wednesday it has completed the acquisition of Kuwait-based Zain Group’s mobile operations in 15 African countries, Uganda inclusive.

The takeover of Zain will make Bharti Airtel the largest telecom service provider in Africa and the fifth largest in the world.

‘We are delighted at the closure of this transformational deal for India and Bharti Airtel…Bharti is now among the five largest mobile operators in the world,” Bharti Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal told a press conference.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, MD and Chairman of Bharti Airtel

Mittal said the transaction, is the largest ever cross-border deal in emerging markets and will result in combined revenues of about 12.4 billion dollars and EBITA of over 4.7 billion dollars.

Zain which three years ago bought Celetel has over 42 million customers in the 15 African countries including Uganda, Kenya Tanzania, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Sierra Leone and Zambia. According to a statement from Bharti Airtel, Zain is the telecom leader in 10 African countries and second in four of the countries where Zain operates.

As part of the deal, Bharti will be paying 8.3 billion dollars upfront and 700 million dollars after a year. The company would also take over about 1.7 billion dollars of Zain’s debts as on December 31, 2009.

But Bharti Airtel will be happy for finally getting its desired pie of the African telecom market, after trying twice to take over South Africa based telecom giants MTN for 23 billion US dollars.

Mittal says the acquisition of Zain interests means Bharti has a presence in 18 countries across Asia and Africa with a customer base of over 180 million.

By Ultimate Media

The post Bharti Airtel concludes takeover of Africa Telecom giants Zain first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.

Zain Uganda on Monday announced it is offering 25 minutes to any of its subscribers who load 500 Uganda shillings, and an additional 30 free short message service or sms to other Zain subscribers.

The offer dubbed “Zain Kika” s so far the lowest of the daily load and call for free packages that Uganda mobile phone companies are offering.

Started by Warid Telecom as Pakalast where the company offered full day free Warid to Warid calls for any subscriber who loaded 2,000 shillings per day, the same package has been adopted by MTN Uganda, Uganda Telecom and Orange Uganda, with Zain the latest on the bandwagon.

MTN Uganda asks its subscribers to load 3,000 shillings and get 60 minutes of calls to MTN numbers within 24 hours, while Uganda Telecom offers free calls to Utl subscribers for extra airtime offered after a subscriber loads a particular amount of Utl airtime.

The five Mobile telecommunication providers in Uganda have been rolling out promotion after promotion aimed at tapping and retaining subscribers in a surely heating up mobile telephone industry.

By Ultimate Media

The post Zain Kika launches as completion in mobile phone market intensfies first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.