Africell is set to officially switch off its, mobile network signal today–marking the end of a seven-year journey for the UK-based telecom company in Uganda. It’s done, Africell is gone. We now have two major cell phone carriers in Uganda: MTN and Airtel– yes, we still have the likes of Lycamobile which was recently granted a National Telecommunication Operator (NTO) license by UCC, making the company the Third National Operator. It’s been such a long time coming and has seemed so inevitable that we initially broke the news about how the company was struggling in June.
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The company will officially return all licenses to UCC including 2G, 3G, 4G, and transmission spectrum. All of Africell Uganda’s customers are expected to have an alternative mobile network they have switched to before the end of the day. The company has been sending out daily SMS messages reminding all clients to use up all their Airtime and data by 7th October 2021. For the few who have been using Africell as their mainline, it was high time they looked for a new network to use as things will change significantly in the short term.
When any big company closes shop, it’s impossible to point to any single cause and say “that’s it, that was the mistake.” There are always a hundred “if but for” examples you could point to. We have often pointed to Africell’s gigantic bet on;
- data-only strategy and failing to attract new clients with other added services
- poor investment strategy
- failure to maintain Africell Money
- poor expenditure,
- favoritism of lebaness nationas, and
- economic downturn due to covid19 pandemic.
I think all these issues hurt Africell’s chances to dominate the market but I also recognize that it’s an oversimplification to just say that one or two of the above issues caused its demise.
Good bye Africell in comes Lyca
Lycamobile is however determined to fill Africell’s shoes as they allegedly have plans to roll out over 1,000 4G network sites across Uganda as part of their investment. Despite their affordable data bundles, Lyca’s biggest obstacles remain coverage and data speeds, the company has a lot cut out for it to catch up with MTN’s over 20 years of investment in Uganda’s telecom market.
So rather than a post-mortem, I want to celebrate Africell’s glory days. Because once upon a time, Africell will be remembered as the best carrier for mobile internet users who were into smartphones. I’m talking about the days before and just after the iPhone when it was still Orange Uganda— so yes, this is praise for a time that’s more than a decade behind us now.
But in those mid-to-late-aughts days, there was no better place to be a smartphone user than on Orange –now the defunct Africell. While MTN and Airtel were still struggling with 3G internet, Africell’s 4G network was launched and was reliable at the time.
Africell, meanwhile, has always had wireless internet in the name of 3G and 4G data, charged less than its competitors, and didn’t try to break smartphone functionality left and right in a bid to upsell you on its own services. Truth be told, the telecom company has done its best to remain relevant on Uganda’s telecom scene, but just like any other business if expenditures exceed revenues– there is no need to carry on.
Were it not for its prices, persistence to remain in the market, its openness to new technology, and the communities that formed around those two things, I probably wouldn’t be writing these words to you right now.
Whatever fight was in Africell dissipated last year later as it quietly prepared itself for either an acquisition or a complete market exit. Africell was never mighty and never quite managed to compete successfully against its larger competitors. But for a time it served a data-thirsty group of people when other carriers wouldn’t. Long live Africell, sad that you left UTL behind.
