Airtel Uganda recently officially launched its partnership with UGO. The partnership involves Airtel Uganda zero rating the internet site for all its Airtel subscribers. This means that all Airtel subscribers can access UGO site at no charge at all.
UGO provides diverse information and local content ranging from local news, entertainment and sports, technology, photos from various Ugandan events, videos, as one of Uganda’s largest online business directory.
Airtel came into the data business aggressively in August 2012 with 3.75G data coverage and currently, have affordable data. For as low as 500/= one can surf all day. Airtel customers are now enjoying a consistent and reliable data service. What Airtel strives to achieve is to remain relevant to the community in which it operates, and to become the most loved brand in the daily lives of Africa as a whole. This partnership with UGO is one way to express this.
UGO Managing Director, Boaz Shani in his speech, said “UGO has been promoting local content for the last three years, and we are delighted to partner with Airtel on this initiative,” He also added that “UGO is moving on the ground and urging more corporates to get their content shared with the world as well as updating consistently and also educating everyone on social networking and how to use it best. So Uganda will be exposed globally and locally”
The Managing Director of Airtel Uganda, V.G. Somasekhar, said “Therefore with this partnership, we hope to promote local content with in Uganda. From this we want to see our Airtel subscribers enjoy a rich customized internet experience. Content is about what Ugandans want to hear, see and read and Ugandan content by Ugandans is what is relevant to our customers. In our search for such a solution, we found the answer in www.ugo.co.ug which then birthed the relationship between UGO and Airtel that you see here today. UGO stands for local content, developed by Ugandans for Ugandan consumers, and continuously keeping the Ugandan need at heart. Airtel already has one of the fastest and most affordable internet services, and for Ugandans who want to view our local content, including news from all our local media houses it will be free. It is a zero rated URL” he added.
Ruhakana Rugunda, Minister of Information and Communications Technology in Uganda commended Airtel for getting involved in developing the private sector and improving the ICT in Uganda.”Without a doubt, the internet has become a vital part of our fast growing environment with everything becoming digitalized. Information of all sorts can now be accessed through the internet in seconds,” he said.
In addition, he said “I therefore commend Airtel Uganda and UGO for this great initiative to empower Ugandans to embrace and enjoy different aspects of truly Ugandan content through their fast internet services and UGO web portal. Venturing into our local content is indeed a timely venture because Uganda has a rich heritage and knowledge base that should be recognized, recorded and shared for the benefit of people both in Uganda and throughout the world.”
