Friday, 05 August 2011 00:00
Kenyatta University has signed an MoU with Orange which will allow KU students and staff enjoy cheaper internet charges, free access to facebook as well as preferential calling and sms rates on Orange Mobile within the University.
This tariff, Unizone, will also allow students to make on-net calls at KSh 1 within the unizone and at KSh 2, without the designated locations. These rates translate to a 50% drop on normal calling rates from the network. The University’s innovation hub has been boosted by the provision of Wi-Fi hot spots to support business savvy students with a knack for entrepreneurship.
The University community will also benefit from the launch of preferential calling and sms rates on Orange Mobile, at a special tariff within their University campus and other designated locations around the campus.
According to Orange Telkom Kenya CEO, Mickael Ghossein, Kenyatta University will be the first university to experience this ‘pay as you go’ offer that will first be on a trial run for 3 months till September, 2011.
“We have installed a hot spot for their business centre, allowing students and young entrepreneurs within the campus to access quality internet as they work on realising their business ambitions. It is in this same breath that we have also seen the need of providing these students with the freedom to communicate at reasonable costs,” he said.
This offer also brings with it glad tidings to social media lovers; a new way of accessing Facebook anytime, anywhere using a new mobile site Facebook zero.
“Orange is the first telecommunications provider in Kenya to launch Facebook zero and our customers will be able to access this for free,” said Ghossein.
Facebook zero has all of the key features of the conventional Facebook site but is optimised for speed. It is available on one’s Orange mobile phone with the ability to access one’s home page, notifications, wall posts and status updates at no charge.
“Facebook zero is designed to help eliminate two barriers: speed and cost. This is because there is pretty low usage of data as it is a text only site and Orange will not charge the user for data access on text only pages,” added Ghossein.
The launch of Unizone comes just weeks after research findings by Consumer Insight revealed that more than 50% of youth in East Africa have active sim cards and use billions of shillings monthly on airtime purchase.
“Unizone will help reduce on their airtime spend and it will also live up to the Orange brand standards of bringing a fun and refreshing feel to communication, ” concluded Ghossein, adding that the offer should create a club effect among the youth in the selected zones.
The service does not require subscription and will apply automatically apply within the zone and be automatically deactivated once outside the zone. A Unizone area will be identified by the word UNI-ZONE displayed on one’s phone, as long as the cell’s info display function is enabled on the phone.
