It's bye bye Vodafone as interconnection fees are slashed

Good and bad news coming out of today’s press on the Uganda Telecom sector. The good news is that UCC has lowered the charges for SMS and Voice for the period 2018-2020. Interconnection fees have been set at UGX65 from UGX112 for voice calls. That’s a 42% reduction. SMS interconnection rates have also been reduced by 53% from UGX15 to UGX7. The rates will even further drop effective 1 July 2019.

For an ordinary subscriber, making calls to other networks will become cheaper and affordable. While on net calls remain very cheaply priced, off net calling has been a nightmare with many people preferring to carry more than one simcard. With a reduction in interconnection fees, we hope to see more off net calling.

The Bad news today is that the British Based Vodafone has finally terminated the branding agreement with Afrimax Uganda Limited. In effect, there is no more Vodafone in Uganda. The curtains have eventually come down on Vodafone. All the Vodafone products and branding has to come down. If you were looking for any evidence of the cut throat competition in the sector, you have it. The big giants continue to dominate both the voice and data markets and any new entrants has to literally fight for their lives. Bye bye Vodafone.