In Uganda, MTN Uganda showcased its a 5G trial after Nigeria’s active demo that paved a path for Safaricom to choose Huawei as its equipment provider to build its 5G network in Kenya. But none of the telcos ever plotted when they will fully launch 5G services.

With Vodacom’s new 5G network users are able to connect with speeds of 150Mbps – 500Mbps with a high peak of 1Gbps. The network currently supports both mobile and fixed wireless access.

According to Vodacom, the 5G achievement comes after the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) gave the telco a 3.5Ghz band spectrum used to fast track the 5G network deployment.

5G is currently available in SouthAfrica’s cities of Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Cape Town with further rollouts planned for other parts of the country. The network is further available on 20 live 5G sites with 18 available in Gauteng and 2 in Capetown.

For data plans, Vodacom inked that existing 4G bundles for mobile and fixed wireless can initially apply to the new 5G offering as the telco plans for new tariffs tailored for 5G network connectivity.

At the moment, Vodacom is affordably offering Huawei’s 5G CPE Pro and Nokia first mile 5G fixed wireless routers to customers who wish to connect to 5G using their regular 3G/4G Smartphones in case of non-5G compatibility.

The beauty around the new partnership with Vodacom is the ability for users to transact for as low as 5% on sending fees. In Africa, telcos charge between 10% to 15% with variations per region, this means an affordable channel for mobile users to rely on.

The addition of Vodacom Tanzania to the Yello telco’s supported list follows a success streak of the same service with other telcos in East Africa namely: Tanzania (Airtel & Tigo), Kenya (Safaricom), Burundi (Eco Cash) and Rwanda with MTN Rwanda .

According to the MTN General Manager Mobile Financial Services Mr. Ali Monzer. The cross border money remittance service is intended at easing the process of sending and receiving money to give business owners and families to transact safely, conveniently and affordably in realtime as he said:

Regional remittance service is an important part of our mobile financial services strategy to increase financial inclusion for all using mobile technologies, and to reduce the cost of transferring money between countries.

The new partnership will take advantage of the extensive distribution network of Mobile Money in the region and reduce the cost of sending and receiving money for our customers

Ali Monzer, General Manager Mobile Financial Services MTN Uganda.

How to Send money from MTN Uganda to Vodacom Tanzania

To send money using your MTN Account to Vodacom Tanzania or any other region in East Africa, All you have to is dial *165*1*2# to access the regional transfers menu and select region to send to, then phone number, amount and confirm with your pin

• Dial *165# (Mobile Money Menu USSD code)
• Select option 1 (Send Money)
• Choose option 2(International transfer)
• Select the country to send to
• Enter Mobile Number
• Enter amount to send
• See Summary with Forex rates of the day and amount the recipient will receive 
• Confirm with your Mobile Money PIN
• DONE: The Recipient will be credited

The problems solved through MTN’s partnership with Vodacom

According to Vodacom’s MPESA director in Tanzania, a total of Tzsh 178billion was sent by users from Uganda to Tanzania and Vice versa in 2015 attracting bullish spikes that pushed the figure to 350 billion in 2018

However, the statistics only featured money sent through formal channels of which many informal non-tracked channels have been relied on by users. So, the new partnership with MTN will see customers send money in real-time to Tanzania and Vice versa unlike other slow methods.

“ We have seen the difficulty our customers face when transacting between neighbouring countries and we have brought a solution through this service which is convenient, reliable and faster.

There is no reason for our customers to send money through bus drivers or conductors and other unsecure channels when doing business transactions, paying tuition fees or send money to family and friends.

Our customers can now save time by sending and receiving money from Uganda through their M-Pesa wallets more conveniently and affordably”

Epimack Mbeteni – Director Vodacom MPESA