Focus: MTN’s Home and away product takes Kigali by storm

MTN Rwanda on Wednesday October 03 launched a new product dubbed “home and away”. This new product means that MTN Rwanda has scrapped cross border roaming fees on calls between users on Uganda’s MTN network and Kenya safaricom with MTN Rwanda subscribers. This is after an agreement was reached between MTN Uganda Safaricom Kenya, Vodacom Tanzania and MTN Rwanda cell was reached earlier this year to scrap roaming fees within the region. It is only Tanzania’s Vodacom which is yet to embrace this development with Rwanda. The implication is that MTN Rwanda cell, MTN Uganda and Kenya’s Safaricom subscribers will no longer need to pay the high fees charged for calling across borders within the region. This also implies that people will no longer need to change their mobile phone lines when they leave Rwanda and go to Uganda or Kenya. The same applies to MTN Uganda subscribers and Safaricom Kenya subscribers. What this means also is that the roaming rates that subscribers would pay have been drastically reduced for MTN Rwanda cell subscribers visiting the two countries. What the three telephone companies have done to ease this new product is to create new airtime top up cards that work on all the three networks and in the three countries in question. According to Themba Khumalo the CEO of MTN Rwanda cell the “Home and away” product seeks to simplify communication for the customers in the country. “People are very excited and this excitement shows that it has been well received and embraced” said Khumalo while speaking to the New Times. He added that MTN Rwanda cell and Safaricom of Kenya will specifically be cooperating on this specific product of seamless communication. He added that the service also serves to promote the goal of East African integration. Khumalo said that specifically this service will further promote trade across borders in East Africa. He added that as a company MTN Rwanda cell aims to facilitate communication across the region by this product and hopefully they also reap benefits in terms of subscription to the network. How it was conceived The launching of MTN home and away product means that MTN Rwanda is implementing an agreement that had been agreed upon in February this year. The coming on board of Rwanda comes after mobile phone giants, Safaricom Kenya, MTN Uganda and Vodacom Tanzania launched a single regional mobile telephone network on February 1, 2007, the second in the region after Celtel’s. In the partnership known as ‘Kama Kawaida’ in both Kenya and Tanzania and ‘MTN Home & Away’ in Uganda and Rwanda, subscribers while in Kenya or Uganda can now make calls when across. With Rwanda now on board, the falling tariffs are set to boost the business community and constant travelers across the region but will also open up an opportunity to further the common East African Community (EAC) vision of creating synergies that will in the long run serve to advance economic and political development in the five nation strong regional body. Rwandans speak out Sole Habimana a long distance truck driver who plies the Kigali-Kampala-Mombasa high way told Sunday Times that the MTN s home and away product could not have come at a better time. “It will save me from constantly changing my telephone number when ever I am working in Uganda and Kenya” Said Habimana. Habimana added that as a truck driver he had to constantly inform his friends and other people he works with his whereabouts all the time in order to keep in constant contact. Now for him this will no longer be the case as he will no longer need to change his number. Indeed to many people who could not afford to pay roaming fees or the patience of lining at the MTN head offices seven days before traveling abroad, this is a positive and welcome development. This sentiment is also echoed in the words of Enock Mzee a business man dealing in stationery at the Union Trade centre (UTC) in Kigali. “It is a welcome development and it will help us in our business transaction especially in the field of communication” said Mzee. Mzee has been dealing in stationery and says he does most of his shopping in Kampala Uganda and in a few cases Nairobi. Without doubt business people like Mzee will find MTN home and away user friendly and cost effective in as far as conducting business is concerned. Fidele Rubagumya, a professional accountant in Kigali believes that this development will not only be a boost to the MTN as a mobile telecommunications company but most especially to its customers. Rubagumya also believes that the fact that he will remain using his mobile number while travelling in Uganda and Kenya is enough incentive for him to remain hooked on the giant mobile telecommunications company. Nadia Tunga of Bata Shoe Company in Kigali City also echoes the same sentiments. How ever she remains a bit sceptical as to whether the tariffs have been scrapped permanently. Promoting regional integration The introduction the new product that is envisaged to cover all the countries in the East African region comes at a time when the political leaders are busy engaged in efforts to bring about economical and political integration. Talking about this new product that is known in Kenya as “Kama kawaida” the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Safaricom Michael Joseph said that enhanced regional telecommunication services will significantly promote regional commerce and hence economic integration. More still the adoption of the home and away product by Rwanda alongside other East African countries will help to boost the economic and political integration of East Africa by serving as a synergy on which to base the process of integration. This serves to boost the efforts of the political leaders in fostering integration. Efforts by telecommunications companies to lead the way in regional integration mark the increased role of the private sector in the process of unifying the East African countries in all sectors most especially economic integration. Ends