Are You Traveling Across the East Africa Community? Get Yourself an Airtel Sim Card
A Practical Guide to Efficient and Affordable Communication Across East African Borders
Hello rafiki 😊
Welcome to the Not an Afterthought Newsletter. We lead the conversation on how to accelerate Africa’s socio-economic development with a particular emphasis on the role technology will play in fueling economic growth that will make Africa not an afterthought!
The East African Community created the One Network Area (ONA) Roaming Initiative in 2014.
The goal of the initiative was to bolster communication by bringing down roaming charges across the East African Community. The initiative started with Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and South Sudan. Tanzania joined in 2021.
Eight years later, roaming charges across the region have dropped, but a recent trip to Mwanza, Tanzania made it clear that ONA’s vision is far from complete.
On entry to Tanzania, Tigo was the least costly roaming option at Ksh.30/minute to call back home (Kenya) and Ksh.50/min to receive a call.
Least costly, yes, but far from affordable!
What, Therefore, Has ONA Achieved This Far?
At conception, ONA set four primary regulatory interventions:
Zero cost for receiving voice calls while roaming
A waiver of surcharges and excise taxes on incoming voice traffic from the ONA region
Establishing wholesale and retail price caps on outbound ONA traffic
A directive that mobile operators across East African countries would negotiate with their roaming partners to reduce wholesale tariffs.
Since then, mobile operators in Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan have scraped charges for receiving calls and significantly reduced voice call tariffs.
Tanzania is yet to cap voice traffic charges or eliminate charges for receiving voice calls. There has been no communication thus far on the reason for the delay.
DRC is a new entrant to the East African Community, and it will probably take years before it implements ONA, if it does at all.
That leaves Burundi, which is the only EAC country that seems to have no plans to join ONA. Maybe now that President Evariste Ndayishimiye, the president of Burundi, is the chairman of the EAC, that might change.
Until that change comes, East African citizens still need an affordable way to communicate across borders.
That is where Airtel comes in!
However, before diving into all that, first look at this figure to get a rough idea of the roaming rates of other mobile operators across East Africa.
Safaricom is the leading mobile operator in Kenya. Safaricom’s rates are comparable (within the same range) to the rates of other mobile operators in East Africa. That’s because the operators negotiated with each other to reduce roaming charges.
For example, while Safaricom charges Ksh.10/min for calls within the country you have visited and calls back home, MTN Uganda charges Ksh.12/min, and MTN Rwanda charges Ksh.8.5.
Now that you have that context, back to Airtel.
Why Airtel?
Airtel is a double-edged sword! The operator allows you to leverage two distinct tariff-reducing services.
The first service is of course ONA. Airtel allows you to take advantage of the lower tariffs offered by the East African Community’s One Network Area Initiative (ONA) in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and South Sudan.
The second service is known as One Airtel. It simply means that although Airtel Kenya, Airtel Uganda and all the Airtels across Africa are different companies, the telecommunication services they provide across the continent fall under one parent company—Airtel Africa.
As such, there is a level of synchronization and interoperability that facilities lower tariffs.
In East Africa, Airtel is available in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
It means citizens from six East African Community countries—Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, DRC, Rwanda, and South Sudan—can access incredibly affordable telecommunication services thanks to ONA, One Airtel or a mixture of the two.
What exactly are these affordable services?
1. Airtel Offers Affordable Calling Rates
One Airtel allows Airtel to provide competitive roaming voice call rates. The charges are often lower than the rates provided by any other telecommunication operators across East Africa.
For a Kenyan traveling across EAC, these are the rates.
Again, the charges are similar or comparable for East Africans in the One Airtel region.
For example, for a Ugandan traveling across East Africa, it costs UGX 250/min for calls within the visited country and back home. That is approximately Ksh.8/min which is a huge improvement from the Ksh.12/min that MTN Uganda charges.
Four shillings might not sound like much but those few shillings add up quickly.
A businessman from Nakuru, Kenya, discovered this when he ended up with a postpaid Safaricom bill of Ksh.7000 after making two trips to Kampala, Uganda, in July.
In a typical month, his bill is Ksh.2000.
2. Airtel Has Attractive Data Rates
Airtel Kenya has a data plan known as Roam Like Home—One Airtel Bundle. It has two data plans.
10Gb for Ksh.1100 for one month
20Gb for Ksh.2200 for one month.
That translates to about Ksh.0.11 per Mb.
You can use the Roam Like Home bundle not only in East Africa but in all the African countries where Airtel operates—Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, DRC, Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, Malawi, Niger, India, Gabon, Madagascar, Chad, Congo B, Sri Lanka and Mauritius.
With such data rates, you can use data to make voice calls, saving on voice calls. WhatsApp and similar solutions that use data to make voice calls are a growing trend across East Africa.
For the rest of East Africans in the One Airtel zone, note that while you will not get this same data bundle, you will get a comparable one. The cost of data bundles is dependent on your country's rate.
For example, in Rwanda, Airtel offers the following data bundles that allow you to browse in Airtel Africa countries as if you are browsing from Rwanda.
How to Subscribe to Roam Like Home—One Airtel Bundle as a Kenyan
Dial *544#
Select' next' the option 7 (roaming)
Select option 1 'Roam Like Home Data
Select option 1, 'Roam Like Home Data-One Airtel.'
Select either the 10Gb option or the 20Gb option.
While in Mwanza, I subscribed to the 10Gb option. I hot-spotted the data to several people, downloaded a movie, used the data daily, and by the time I left Mwanza (I was there for a week), I still had 4Gb. It was a confirmation that while on this data plan, you indeed roam like you are at Home.
Airtel Kenya also has other Roam Like Home data plans. They include:
Roam Like Home—Global Data Bundle.
One Airtel—PAN Africa Bundle
Global Roaming
Frequently Asked Questions About Roam Like Home—One Airtel Bundle
Is Roam Like Home automatic?
No, you have to subscribe as enumerated above by dialing *544#
What do I need to be eligible?
Nothing, just an Airtel sim card. The data bundle is available to both prepaid and postpaid customers. However, please ensure your sim card is 4G enabled for the best service.
Can I hotspot to my laptop or another phone?
Absolutely. You will still be Roaming Like Home on whichever device you use the data.
How do I purchase another Roam Like Home Bundle if I exhaust it?
If you already have airtime on your card, dial *544# and follow the procedure above. If you do not have airtime and are Kenyan, you can buy airtime from Airtel Money or Mpesa.
To purchase Airtel Credit from Mpesa in any other East African country other than Kenya, use the Safaricom app or dial *334#. Any other method will attract charges or not work.
Dial *334#
Select option 6, 'Lipa na Mpesa.'
Select option 1 'Paybill'
Enter Business Number 220220
Enter your Airtel number as your Account number, for example, 0786567XXX
Wait for Airtime to be loaded to your card
If you are from the rest of East Africa, please visit your provider's website to determine the procedure for purchasing Airtel airtime in a foreign country.
Word of Caution: Note that just because it is One Airtel, it does not mean you can buy an Airtel voucher from the country you visit and load it to your card. For example, the airtime voucher for Airtel Tanzania will not load to an Airtel Kenya line (trust me, I tried).
What About South Sudan and Burundi?
One Airtel does not cover South Sudan, but the country falls under the East African Community's One Area network initiative.
Under ONA, Airtel Kenya has a roaming agreement with South Sudan's MTN. As shown in figure 2, you get perks such as:
Calls at 8.8/min within the visited country and back home
Data at Ksh.0.8/Mb
No charges for receiving calls
0.8/Mb (Ksh.800/Gb) is a bit higher compared to roaming data charges within the five EAC countries that fall under One Airtel but still cheaper than all the other available options.
Safaricom, for instance, charges Ksh.5/Mb while roaming on South Sudan's MTN.
MTN Uganda charges UGX.40.73/10Kb while roaming on South Sudan's VivaCell. That equals UGX.4073 for 1Mb.
For Burundi, there is no other option except to get a Sim Card from one of the providers in Burundi.
How Airtel Data Compares to Other Providers
Scroll up to figure 1.
Safaricom data roaming charges range from Ksh.5/Mb to Ksh.75/Mb. Ksh.5/Mb translates to Ksh.5000 per 1 Gb. For context, that is equivalent to bus fare charges from Nairobi to Kigali, a distance of 1,156 Km.
Here is a figure showing Uganda's MTN roaming charges. MTN Uganda data roaming costs UGX.8.15/10Kb while roaming in Kenya and Rwanda. That is equal to Ksh.26/Mb.
In contrast, Airtel data roaming rates range from Ksh.0.4/Mb to 0.8/Mb (except in Burundi, of course).
3. With Airtel, You Avoid Owning Uncountable Sim Cards
A businessman on Twitter narrated how he was mistaken for a criminal in South Africa because he had too many sim cards.
He had to show the police his Twitter profile to confirm he was a prolific businessman who frequently crisscrossed African countries, necessitating the many sim cards.
That is just one of the perils you might face if you own too many sim cards. You might also lose the sim card at a critical time or if it is your first time in a country, arrive too late to purchase one.
Arriving late is particularly scary. What if you need data for Google Maps? What if you need to call someone to pick you up?
Having one sim card that serves you well in several countries is a better bet. Airtel does that for you in 15 African countries.
Other Practical Tips
Roaming sucks your battery dry very quickly. Invest in a power bank.
Either pre-load your Airtel line with credit before leaving your country or communicate with your provider to know how to do it while roaming. Otherwise, you might find yourself stuck.
If you are on a postpaid plan, the charges might differ slightly. Please confirm before leaving your country.
When you are in an EAC country where you can only leverage One Airtel (meaning DRC and Tanzania), the charges for receiving calls are still applicable. Therefore, use data to make and receive calls to avoid those oft-hefty charges.
Conclusion
Imagine traveling from Kenya to Burundi, Bujumbura by bus with short stays in each subsequent country.
The journey usually starts in Kenya, you cross the border to Uganda, travel across Uganda, cross the border to Rwanda and finally take a bus from Rwanda to Bujumbura.
With such a journey, you either commit to being offline most of the time and embrace the stresses that come with that or get yourself an Airtel 4G-enabled sim card.
With the 10Gb bundle, you can use the data in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. When you finally cross to Burundi, you can buy a sim card. That, I discovered is the beauty of Airtel when traveling across East Africa.
P.S I don't work with/for Airtel. This is not some giant advert. I simply learned Airtel's value on my trip to Mwanza. More so, with the recent initiative by East Africa Community to market East Africa as one tourism zone, I thought this was important.
Opportunity Corner: Opportunity For Africans
Applications to the BMZ African-German Leadership Academy 2023 are now open. The academy brings together early to mid-career professionals from Germany and its Africa partner countries. The countries are Kenya, Ghana, Morocco, Zambia, Ethiopia, Tunisia, Togo, Ivory Coast and Senegal.
Follow Link to Apply.
https://www.idos-research.de/en/training/african-german-leadership-academy/
If this is your first time here, here are a couple of issues that you might have missed.
Frequently Asked Questions About The East African Community
Dissecting the East African Community’s Customs Union: How Has it Benefited EAC Citizens?
Building and succeeding in Africa: How Safaricom Did It
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