THE telecom industry may see a resurgence of stiffer competition this 2014.
This follows improving demographics and growth figures with the economy poised to grow at about 6.2% in 2014, inflation slowing to about 6.7% compared to the double figures of 2011 and 2012.
All the telecom firms may bounce back strongly as subscribers see slight improvement in disposable incomes.
Also a new UTL management team according to available information is in charge following several changes at the firm. The team according to sources were part of the marketing team at Warid Telecom before they were eventually acquired by Asian giant Airtel.
It therefore remains to be seen whether UTL will launch onto the price war turf reigniting the pre-2012 price wars that saw call rates drop to as low as sh3 per second. But already, several creative market promotions are ongoing currently.
Fred Otunnu, Uganda Communications Commission publicist says the industry currently has 16.8 million mobile subscribers but increased competition is eminent.
“Obviously the competition is likely to be stiffer compared to last year, all firms are reorganizing their businesses to retain and attract more subscription, we are like to see a higher surge,” says Otunnu.
UCC estimates in 2012 posted subscriber base at close to 18 million which declined to the current about 17 million.
“At one point, there was a slight decline because of sim card registration,” explained Otunnu.
UTL was largely quiet in 2013 as were the rest of the players.
By David Mugabe, The New Vision
