Ever had a scenario where you had no internet data to send that email, when you very well knew that a friend had like 1 GB of data they are not using at the moment! Or worse ever been in a situation where you have to approve your URA(Uganda Revenue Authority) TIN but could not access any internet? This list is fairly goes on and it is because Uganda and Africa is still facing the Internet access problem and the few companies (ISPs and Mobile Telecoms) are over charging for their services.
We all dream of the day when the internet will be free or approximately free, this is evident with the rate with which we access the free WiFi spots around town. A lot of innovation is still required and many telecoms in Uganda are not asking a lot of “What if” questions to solve this problem, well I said many beside Airtel Uganda which just launched the Multi Surf data product.
What is Multi Surf?
Multi surf or Surf Share service enables Airtel customers to share bundle to 4 more other Airtel subcribers irrespective of where these other subscribers are. Is that cool or what!
Imagine having a smartphone, a tablet and a laptop, and let’s say you subscribed data for your modem and shared it with the number in your phone and tablet. You will not have to worry about Internet or switch lines when you have to travel up country, what this telecom is saying is that they know you have many devices and all they want to do is make the internet experience on all these devices as friction-less as possible.
Why I think it’s cool 😉
Whoever came up with this idea did a great job of analyzing the trends because sharing will always be caring, and if social media now enables you to share your moments with the people you love, Why cant Airtel enable you to do the same but for bundles.
We now don’t have to worry about not having WiFi connection any more, If I know a friend who has bundle, I will just tell them to add me to their Multi Surf service and I will start enjoying.
What Airtel should Improve.
The service is limited to Monthly subscribers which limits who is supposed to sing up for the service, the other turn down would be that the person who initially subscribed cannot control the data usage of the people who are accessing the data.
My recommendations
I think this is a step into disrupting how people access internet in Uganda and I am happy about this innovation, however Airtel needs to let me limit the bundle usage because using a photo sharing analogy, I like controlling the photos I share on Instagram, we don’t want my drunk photos out there if you know what am saying. Just let me assign a data limit to the people I share my data with.
Try the product via *175# and follow the prompt from surf share. Finally I think this is a step into the unknown, and I want to see other Telecoms in Uganda bringing services like these to their customers. Please care to leave your thoughts in the comments section and I will see you in the next one.
