With Switch On, Airtel has launched three products in one; “Multi Surf,” a service where a customer subscribes to a bundle on one mobile line and is able to add 4 other mobile numbers to surf from the same bundle irrespective of where these other mobile numbers are and what type of devices they have. Then “Internet Beerako”, a service allows users to borrow up to 100MB at no extra charge. And finally “Data Me 2 U”, which allows users to apportion an amount of their volume to another user and “Data Voucher”, where in customer can directly load the pin number of any airtime voucher and get data bundles directly. Impressed? Maybe, maybe not. However, when we first reviewed Airtel’s data service two years ago and then compared it head-on with Orange Uganda’s service a year later, it’s evident to us that the Telecom has come a long way. Speaking at the press conference, Mr. Arindam Chakrabarty, Managing Director of Airtel Uganda said “We have wrapped the ability to borrow, share and, load data using a data scratch card in one great product which we believe our customers will take full advantage of,”. You can think of it like a Swiss Knife, a multi-purpose toolkit. Mr. Arindam Chakrabarty expressed confidence that the Uganda market will enjoy and embrace the new product, remarking, “Uganda is one of the top ten countries on the continent when it comes to internet usage and at Airtel, we realize that as these statistics grow, so do the needs of the millions of Ugandan internet users. This is why we take pride in anticipating the needs of our customers and then taking the necessary steps to meet them.” Concluding his remarks, Chakrabarty explained that “Switch On” is a permanent addition to the existing Airtel products and services. “This is not a promotional campaign that will end after a specific period of time. ‘Switch On” is the newest member of our product categories and it is here to stay.” Image: Mr. Prasoon Lal, Airtel Marketing Director shows the journalists how to activate SwitchOn
