Telecom Story

I m trully a case study in marketing. or rather I can turn into one.

Future marketing guys, please contact me for any further study purposes. Nope I have not gone crazy about my unability to go down for an MBA, but its just that my acts in the previous days have been more appropriately would very much be a delight to a marketeer.

Lets take the example of the telecommunication sector. When I came by in Uganda two years back, people back home had given me the impression that the mobile rates would be too high and it would be difficult for me to pay such rates etc. etc. On arrival I was in for a shock, though the rates were high (abt 400 ugx/min), and still are compartively high, whats 300 ugx/min or 7.5rs compared to 1rs or max of 2rs/min for intercircle calling, mobiles had been with everyone, the penetration was visible. So eventually, even I felt a need for one. I got one and a card from Uganda Telecom, my FIRST card (you ppl in India would be surprised that here you dont require to show any identification proof before getting a card, so you can hold as many cards as you like :-D). So I used it for a couple of months or so and m still using it but not regularly (coz they charge less to call India :-D) and then I inherited a MTN card from my company here. The only advantage of MTN was that it had a superior network (but then nowadays all providers are the same, they all effectively suck in network). So that makes it the SECOND card. Then again in the midst of it, I heard that Celtel gave a better rate to call India, so I even bought that one, which turned out to be a fake. So the card did not serve my purpose and I donated it to a relative of someone in my company. So that makes it my THIRD card. It doesnt end there.

Sometime down the line in last June, my phone got stole/I lost it (I m still trying to figure it out if it was my mistake or the thief's CONningness which made me lose the phone), so with the phone I lost the card too and there was no way of getting the card or the no. back due to fact that I inherited it and didnt have any proof of the purchase. So this made me buy another card, this time from MTN itself coz for official purposes I preferred MTN itself. So there goes my FOURTH card.

Then came WARID Telecom, the newest and the youngest player in the telecom sector to break the oligopoly of UTL, MTN and CELTEL. I heard that it has a strong network in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Middle East and some parts of Africa too. So in the anticipation that the rates would come flarring down to call India and the world elsewhere, I bought that also. My FIFTH card. Its an alltogether other fact that there was a personal reason also to buy Warid card. My dear friend AA could not receive my smses from the other cards so just to message and call her. I bought this one. I did succeed in sending it through, but then after that abruptly for no reason, she stopped beeping :-D (another fact that I know why she stopped beeping, jst for the record).

So that goes my telecom story. CELTEL has ceased to exist in Uganda, as it has been rebranded as Zain Telecom, a multi countries or rather multi-continental telecom player, which has launched the first ever in the world same call rates to Zain subscribers across the continent!!! AMAZING!!! Now dont expect me to get a Zain connection. or rather expect if the charges are good.

cheers for now

happy weekend