By: Walter Wafula


Kampala - “The inauguration is an introduction of Warid Telecom to the people and thereafter introduce the services in the near future,” Joseph Walusimbi, Warid's Head of Marketing said last week, at the company's headquarters in Kampala, adding, “The brand will be inaugurated by the Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Group Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mubarak Al Nahayan, (owner of Warid Telecom International). President Museveni is also expected.”

The inauguration ceremony will be broadcast live.

Last week, the company kicked off a major advertising campaign in the local newspapers, television and on outdoor billboards announcing “A new year, network” in traditional red and blue colours.

Walusimbi dismissed a rumour the company is going to give away free phones. “I would like to dispel that,” he said, adding that the company aims to provide a good service and will use that as its main strength.

Unknown people have apparently been telling the public that the company will give away about a million mobile phones to woo the public to join their network during its first days of operation. The rumour followed a false new report that was published on the internet about the same last year, of Warid Telecom Pakistan a subsidiary of Warid Telecom International.

Following their test calls in September last year, Walusimbi said the company's commercial calls operations would begin any time before the end of this year's 1st quarter. The company has however already acquired 070 as its calling prefix.

“We are working around the clock with our partners, Ericsson and Hauwei, to ensure that the network is deployed all around the country and ready for use very soon,” he explained.

During the first phase, the network will support 1,500,000 GSM customers and 100,000 Wimax (internet) customers. The company also committed itself to increasing its capacity to 4 million GSM customers and 300,000 internet customers over the next 3 years.

Walusimbi said the GSM network will provide a full suite of the latest product and service offerings to its subscribers including Voice, and data transfer, email, high-speed video and audio downloads among others.

Telecommunication market analysts have predicted the prices of telecommunication services to dive further from the current level once Warid and Hits Telecom start their commercial operations this year.

“People talk about price but it is not static …What is important to us is quality and reliability of services but we also will bring in affordable services. We are not going to be any higher than the existing operators,” says Walusimbi.

To date, the company has invested over $150 million (Shs255bn) into its operations and plans to take its total investment in network, services delivery and man power to over $400 million (Shs680bn) before 2010. The company is simultaneously rolling out its network in Congo Brazzaville and operates in Bangladesh, Ivory Cost and Singapore.

The four telecommunication companies under the Warid International umbrella are part of the Abu Dhabi Group based in the United Arab Emirates. The group also diversified investments in real estate business, banking, insurance and security, in United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Africa, with assets amounting to $10bn (Shs17,000bn).

[7 Jan 2008 10:58]

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