Last year, we at UgtechMag made an in-depth analysis on why social bundles in Uganda are a pain in the stomach. First, they limit access to information spaces and we shared more on why the government must abolish them. You can check it out here.
Contents
Without a doubt, internet in Uganda is expensive (as compared to other African countries). Even with the introduction of the social media tax, this is more vivid than ever. When this social media tax was introduced, it became obvious for the telecommunication companies that they couldn’t sustain social media bundles.
You are wondering why: Here goes, “Why should someone pay for a social media bundle at the same price as the social media tax?” (The social media bundles were as cheap as UGX 200).
For daily social bundle buyers, this was a turn off. Having to scrap off these very amazingly cheap bundles meant that their internet usage had to reduce, unless they found another option.
The rants in WhatsApp groups couldn’t stop, and internet escapades who were ever online due to the blessing of the cheap social bundles realized that time had come for them to lay low. You might be part of that big circle which thought that social bundles were the best option, but we would want to show you the bigger picture.
Before social bundles were scrapped out, Africell offered big on these social bundles. Because Africell’s all internet access bundles were quite expensive as compared to its competitors, many of its users only resorted to Africell due to their cheap social media bundles.
Africell Social Bundles were cheaper before
Africell before the days of the social media tax offered 1GB for UGX 2,500 worth of weekly social bundles and 600MB for UGX 2,000 worth of weekly social bundles. This was the cheapest social bundle option on the market, I at some point used these bundles on my not very good days.
Last month (March), Africell Uganda re-introduced social bundles. These now include social media tax (OTT), so a user doesn’t have to worry about paying an extra fee. Unfortunately, these new social bundles are two times expensive as compared to the previous bundles.
Africell Social Bundles now expensive
Now, social media bundles cost UGX 5,000 for 1GB for a week, and UGX 4,000 for 600MB for a week. Africell is now the only telecom company to bring back the long lost social bundles, BUT unfortunately they are twice as expensive. Before, everyone who resorted to social media bundles ran there because they were cheap, I wonder if Africell shall monopolize this market and maintain its users.
The point of internet being expensive now becomes vivid at this point, even for the so called “Cheap” social bundles. (But this will be a follow up blog for another time)
But here is why we really think the decision of scraping off social bundles made by telecommunication companies was remarkable and why social bundles should go back to the grave.
Limited traffic to websites
During the outburst of social packs, sharing links was old fashioned. It wasn’t rare for people to comment on a shared link how they cannot get access to and read content from a website.
Some people took it a notch higher to request us who shared links to copy and paste content for them from wherever the link was directed to.
With an increasing number of online bloggers in Uganda, in no way would social bundles help build online chatrooms, discussion forums via websites.
For our partners in Kenya, blogging is climbing the heights. Platforms like TechWeez have very engaging online forums with thousands of views and replies.
Limited download options from Google Play store
Just like the name was, “social bundles” were limited to social media usage only. In case you needed to do anything with the internet beyond Whatsapp, Facebook or Twitter (other telecoms had an option for Snapchat and Instagram), you had to purchase an all internet access bundle.
For developers in Uganda who built their applications for the people to try out, this was unfavorable.
This was evident for OLX during its existence in Uganda as compared to Kenya. Just imagine as an application developer you share a link to your newly developed applications only to be told “we are using social bundles, we can’t use your application”.
VPN usage which obscures source of traffic
Some tech forward Ugandans realized during the age of social bundles that they could bypass the limitation of these bundles to use other platforms. This was through using Virtual Private Networks.
This made it hard for people who run websites to track the source of their traffic and have clear metrics and analyses when it comes to audience targeting.
This is still dominant in the social media tax economy, for those evading the tax.
Conclusion
Africell being the only player in the social bundles market now, we are waiting to see the success rate of the resurrected social bundles.
The limitations of social bundles continue to affect the growth of technologies in Uganda and also limit access to online information spaces.
Africell should copy other telecommunication companies in Africa which offer an all internet access bundle and include a FREE access option to one or 2 social media platforms.
What other telecom companies in Africa have done
- MTN South Africa offers FREE Twitter access whenever you purchase certain all internet access bundles.
- Airtel Kenya offers FREE WhatsApp access whenever you purchase certain all internet access bundles.
This should be done by other telecoms in Uganda, other than following what Africell’s footsteps.