UGANDA DUE FOR ANOTHER AFRICAN FIRST AS SMILE PREPARES TO LAUNCH ‘VOLTE’
(Posted 24th October 2015)
Voice calls on Uganda’s various telecommunication networks are often a gamble as connections are filled with static noises, sentences only come across in part like in garbles and then, at the cost of the caller, do calls often involuntarily terminate, aka dropped calls. The Uganda Communications Commission has repeatedly warned licensed operators to improve their network quality or else be fined, but both measures are still much awaited by Uganda’s long suffering network subscribers.
Now, finally, is a remedy in sight after Smile Communications announced the launch of a voice service, entirely routed through their 4GLTE network and to be known as ‘Voice Over LTE’ or in short ‘VoLTE’. Already, of course arguably, Ugandan’s best 4GLTE internet service provider will the advance into an expanded use of the network no doubt find the company plenty of new friends, who, at least when calling within the network, can enjoy the crystal clear quality of voice transmissions, as long as one is within network range. This will at last also allow for video calls on Smart Phones, something which in the 3G era failed to take root due to the often very poor quality. This will be a first in Africa and Uganda has been chosen as the launch country.
Initially launched almost three years ago in Kampala has Smile since then opened up the corridor from Entebbe via Kampala to Mukono and beyond and a major investment of some 365 million US Dollars will ensure that more parts of Uganda will be connected to the network. UCC has already assigned a network prefix, being 072 for local calls or +256 72 for international calls. An interconnection agreement is already in place with Uganda’s second largest network, Airtel, but similar deals are in the final stages of negotiations to include other operators too when Smile goes live in a few weeks’ time. Smile also has operations in Tanzania, Nigeria and South Africa.
The two other major voice networks in Uganda, Airtel and MTN, are presently locked in a battle for market share and per second cost of just 3 Uganda Shillings or 180 Uganda Shillings per minute makes it attractive, in particular for visitors to Uganda, to buy and register a local SIM card to take advantage of such offers and avoid the often bank breaking cost of roaming calls. Airtel has also reaffirmed their status as leading Africa operator by waving roaming fees for incoming calls when subscribers dial across the continent on their network, which spreads over 16 countries including the Seychelles, Kenya and Rwanda.
