The Uganda market of both SMEs and corporate companies has as fast growing need for data services. There are several Uganda SMEs and corporate companies for instance that spend between 100 to 1,000 US dollars per month on their data hosting solutions that include websites, email and other data. Several of these companies often opt for American or UK based hosts largely due to lack of local competitive services that could meet their needs. These same companies also require data access through high speed broadband and will increasingly spend a large part of their IT budget for these data services.
These SMEs and corporate companies would offer a growing revenue base to local operators if their service needs can be met. The local competitive services should meet the availability/uptime and affordability for the Uganda SMEs. MTN has done a great job in bringing innovative and affordable services to the Uganda market, though it has from time to time been possibly surprised by the spike in service uptake and hence seen degraded service quality on several occasions. This has been largely experienced by voice and mobile money consumers. Businesses need more guarantees of data security, reliability and availability of services with availability needs that can range from 99% to 99.99% or even more!
In their statement MTN states that:
“MTN has today launched a multi-million dollar Data and Switching Centre in Mutundwe, just outside Kampala city centre. This launch goes hand in hand with the launch of the new MTN Business Unit which will be a world class provider of converged communications solutions aimed at providing MTN business customers with superior, directly managed services, fully backed by consistent service levels.
In doing so, MTN has taken a special focus on the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) and the Corporate/Business section of our customer base by ensuring that, through innovation, we are able to provide the necessary products and services to satisfy their needs. “
This is a good development from MTN. Will it deliver on its promise? Lets wait to see.
