Airtel Kenya drops roaming rates in Uganda

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 22 – Bharti Airtel, which has over 300 million customers and operations in 20 countries across Africa and Asia has announced a significant reduction in data roaming rates by 78 percent and call rates by 60 percent for its prepaid and postpaid customers while roaming in Uganda.

The reduction is in line with Airtel’s “One Area Network” proposition which is aligned to the East African telecommunication integration.

Airtel said customers will browse the internet for as low as Sh10 per MB as well as enjoying a rate of Sh9 per minute down from Sh23 per minute for calls while roaming in Uganda.

The new changes cover calling Kenya while roaming in Uganda, making local calls in Uganda and calling Rwanda when roaming in Uganda.

Receiving calls while roaming in Uganda is now free of charge for unlimited number of minutes, while Airtel Kenya subscribers making international calls to Uganda and Rwanda will now pay a flat rate of Ksh 10.

In a statement, Airtel Kenya CEO Adil El Youssefi said: “The reduction will give more talk time and access to the internet for our travelling customers in the spirit of fostering seamless cross border communication for communities in the East Africa Region. Airtel remains committed to deliver more affordable roaming rates and better value for consumer traveling or doing business in Uganda and beyond.”

Airtel Kenya prepaid customers roaming in Uganda will continue to enjoy the convenience of being able to top-up their prepaid SIM cards with locally purchased scratch cards, which can be purchased at any Airtel Uganda points of sale and top up by simply dialing “138*Voucher-PIN” and press the OK button.

For prepaid customers, the roaming service is automatically activated when crossing into Airtel Uganda network, with no prior registration required or sign-up fee charged.

The new offers on Airtel’s One Network will enable customers to be treated as local customers when they travel.