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MTN, the leading mobile carrier in Uganda, announced that it has seen an impressive adoption of the newly launched Voice SMS service by its subscribers, and has ordered an upgrade to triple the capacity of the Voice SMS system. MTN had launched Voice SMS service across Uganda, based on pioneering Voice SMS technology from Kirusa, the world’s leading vendor of Voice SMS and a leading developer of mobile value added services. MTN Uganda Voice SMS service has seen adoption by over 11% of its subscribers within three months of the launch of Voice SMS on their network.

Voice SMS allows the subscribers to send messages by voice, eliminating the need to type. It enables the subscribers to communicate faster, with greater ease, and convey emotions as compared to limitations of text messages. Use of Voice SMS by mobile subscribers is gaining global relevance for its benefits in surpassing the limitations of text messages.

Users dial * followed by the number to record and send a message. The recipient receives an SMS notification for each new Voice SMS and can listen to the messages by dialing *0* or a DirectListen number embedded in the SMS notification. Users can send messages to other MTN users, as well as to subscribers of other mobile carriers in Uganda. The service is being promoted, and awareness is being created in the subscriber base, using several methods, including USSD, SMS, MTN retail outlets, and radio.

MTN introduced tiered pricing for Voice SMS for prepaid subscribers with discounted pricing for sending Voice SMS to on-net subscribers and during off-peak hours. Postpaid subscribers pay one price for sending Voice SMS to on-net and off-net at all times. MTN’s offer of free repeat listen calls for three months also added an impetus to the traffic.

Voice SMS has been performing extremely well at MTN Uganda since the date of launch. The Voice SMS adoption figure in the first month of launch was around 8% and the usage was around four Voice SMS compose calls per user, which was an excellent start. By the second month, the adoption had increased to 11%. Moving forward, MTN has been experiencing significant retention for Voice SMS service, with 75% of total users being existing users.

Commenting on the occasion, Isaac Nsereko, Chief Marketing Officer of MTN Uganda, said: “We are delighted with the success of Voice SMS service with our subscribers. The service has been receiving an overwhelming response from our subscribers since its launch as they have found it an innovative medium to communicate. The richness of the Kirusa solution and the support from the Kirusa team has been instrumental in achieving this success.”

Commenting on the performance, Dr. Inderpal Singh Mumick, CEO and Founder of Kirusa said, “We congratulate MTN Uganda on gaining great momentum in their Voice SMS offering.” He further added, “The key here is to offer an easy to use service at attractive rates, and to create awareness amongst users to build up on the service strength and popularity.”

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