Roke Telkom, a Ugandan-based telecommunications company and public service provider for voice and data communication has launched a campaign to help businesses, Edu centres and individuals stay connected to education, communications and productivity applications and services at no extra cost.
The new offer, which is being run under their Roke Plus product, comes on the backdrop of the Wuhan Corona Virus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that hit the world in December 2019 originating from the Hubei Province of China, particularly Wuhan City.
Michael Mukasa, Roke Telkom’s Chief Commercial Officer said that “We have zero-rated specific productivity services and products on our Roke Plus home product to help our customers achieve their goals in the wake of the looming restrictions on levels of public interactions.”
Mukasa added that “We have made acquiring this service easy and affordable by discounting installation costs for the service by 40% from Ushs. 500,000 to Ushs. 300,000,” observing that, “This has been done to help our customers stay productive and achieve their personal, education and business goals despite the effects that COVID 19 currently has on businesses and educational institutions.”
Existing customers can already access these services as of Wednesday, 18th March 2020 while new customers can access them once the installation of the service is completed at their selected premises. The campaign will be running indefinitely.
According to Michelle Baine, Roke Telkom’s Brand Manager, the applications that have been zero-rated include Google Classrooms, Google Hangouts, Office 365, Teams, Trello, Skype and Zoom to support and ensure that business is still conducted and students can still access learning tools and classes online.
“In addition to free internet, all night and all weekend provided by the Roke Plus Home internet service, the data used by these platforms will not count towards the paid monthly subscription package. Essentially they will be free and available for access 24/7,” Baine explained.
First identified in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, in December 2019, the COVID–19 outbreak was recognized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11th March 2020.
As of 18th March 2020, more than 203,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in over 160 countries and territories, with major outbreaks in mainland China, Europe, Iran, and South Korea.
More than 8,200 people have died and over 82,000 have recovered. On 13th March, the WHO announced that Europe has become the new epicentre of the pandemic.
Five countries in the East African community have so far been reported to have patients that contracted the virus.
With 8 cases in Rwanda, 4 in Kenya, one case in Tanzania, one in Burundi and one in South Sudan, it is only crucial that as a country, service providers innovate products and services to meet the current needs of businesses that are both efficient and affordable.
