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Kampala
MTN Uganda kicked off this year with high activity recorded from its customers.
This success has been registered through the increase in voice calls, SMS activity, data transaction volumes and mobile money transactions as compared to the same period last year.
In comparison to a period one year ago, ‘person to person’ SMS figures that were at 12 million have seen an increase to 14 million for the same period in 2012.
Figures were compared for the festive period, 24 December 24th to 1st January, showing a marked increase in SMS transactions of almost 20% increase in transactions.
In 2012, MTN Uganda launched a number of voice and SMS promotions on Facebook such as “Fastest Fingers” that gave customers an opportunity to stay in touch using the SMS service.
MTN recorded a 52% rise in voice calls during the festive season and conversations continue to increase as it provides more value to their customers each year.
Atleast 89% increase was registered in terms of data volumes consumed during the festive period compared to 2011. MTN’s customers consumed more than 50 Terabytes worth of internet downloads and uploads during December 2012 alone.
“We are optimistic that 2013 will be a largely successful year evidenced by the increase in activity on voice, SMS and data transactions on the MTN Network during the festive season and into the New Year,” says Mike Blackburn, Chief Financial Officer at MTN Uganda.
MTN Uganda has made significant investments into its network over the last two years and these investments have started to reap dividends.
To cement this exponential growth, a few weeks ago, MTN announced its plans to deploy LTE in Uganda. This new technology provide capacity for high speed data for both mobile phones and data terminals.
In 2013 alone, MTN Uganda plans to invest USD 70 million added to another USD 80 million that was spent in 2012, in a way to expand its network infrastructure that will support mobile customer growth and rollout new innovative digital solutions.
MTN Uganda continues to dominate the Mobile Money business. The Operator recorded over 200 million transactions on its Mobile Money platform during the 2012 festive period which represents a 210% growth transactions and 110% growth in the amount of money sent during the festive period in 2011. Over 25 million transactions were carried out during December 2012.
“These figures show that our customers were able to communicate with their loved ones during the festive season as well as ably carry out their financial transactions on the MTN network at this important time of year. We are glad to be a reliable partner for this activity,” added Blackburn.
“Our focus as a business is to provide superior customer experience and relevant products and services that suit the needs of our customers. Going forward we will ensure that we continue to remain relevant to our growing customer base through innovation and dedicated customer service. MTN will work extensively with all existing and new licensed operating telecom providers to develop the ICT agenda of Uganda,” Blackburn concluded.
