By Moses Mulondo
Telecom giant MTN Uganda has significantly cut the internet data charges to increase the rate of internet usage by Ugandans.
Speaking about the move at the MTN headquarters today (Thursday, February 3), the MTN Uganda Chief Executive Officer, Wim Vanhelleputte, said the decision is a continuous effort by MTN to deliver value for customers at the most affordable pricing and continue driving the company’s customers’ progress through connectivity.
“We have revised our daily data offers permanently to give more value to our customers, because it’s our belief that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life,” Vanhelleputte explained.
These new offers focus on the smaller and most frequently used data bundles by the MTN customers.
“The repackaged daily data bundles have more MBs, but maintain the existing price, giving customers more data for the same old price. For instance, at sh500, customers will get 65MB instead of 40MB, while at sh1,000, they will get 165MB instead of 100MBs,” MTN said in the explanatory statement issued.
In the whole of Africa, it is only Uganda and Zambia that have imposed taxes on internet, a tax that is discouraged internationally as it stifles progress in the utilisation of the digital revolution opportunities
A recent report from a survey carried out by a global telecom monitoring and testing firm, Rohde & Schwarz, in the last quarter of 2021, ranked MTN’s data as the best in the country in terms of quality of user experience, as well as speed, reliability and coverage.
“MTN committed to doing all it takes in terms of providing affordable data, on the best data network. And speaking in the context of the times we’re in, we hope these bundles with bigger MBs will support our customers recover from the effects of the lockdown, whether in business, education or otherwise,” Vanhelleputte stated.
When Over the Top Tax (OTT) was introduced, the cost of internet went up and the access to internet in Uganda reduced from 48% to only 33%. In East Africa, Kenya has the highest access to internet of 80%.
Whereas the Government last year scrapped OTT, it introduced another internet tax of excise duty on internet data of 12% which has equally kept the cost of internet high in Uganda.
In the whole of Africa, it is only Uganda and Zambia that have imposed taxes on internet, a tax that is discouraged internationally as it stifles progress in the utilisation of the digital revolution opportunities.
