Airtel Uganda’s new Managing Director Soumendra Sahu has hinted on a ‘possible’ Starlink partnership to extend high speed satellite internet across several markets in Africa, including Uganda.
Speaking during a Friday press briefing in Kampala, Mr Soumendra said the partnership remains a possibility considering Bharti Airtel in India has already partnered with Elon Musk’s Starlink.
Bharti Airtel is a multinational telco operating in more than 18 countries globally, including some parts of Africa, and Uganda in particular.
The multinational recently announced a distribution agreement allowing it to sell SpaceX’s Starlink internet services in India. The deal, however, awaits regulatory approvals.
“This is just a start and obviously, Airtel Africa is playing an active role. Eventually, it will come to Africa. I have a strong feeling that once it is successful in India, the same thing will be lifted and shifted to Africa. We will also benefit from that at Group level,” Mr Soumendra said.
Whereas Starlink is already operating in 19 countries across Africa, Uganda has been cautious about its entry into the market with some insiders at Uganda Communications Commission citing, “a possible distabilisation of the status quo.”
Other market analysts say, Starlink is still relatively expensive for an average data consumer from a logistical perspective, and may only benefit business-to-business arrangements in the short term.
Airtel, which has maintained an aggressive marketing agenda in the data segment, is also set to double its investment in the data, and will be a key priority this year and beyond.
The telco’s data revenue and value-added services grew significantly in the 12 months to December 2024, reaching UGX 961 billion compared to UGX 776 billion in 2023.
The increase was primarily driven by a rise in data usage, with more clients accessing data services.
“Data is a future as a category and almost 80-90% of all our investments will be [centred] around data and how to grow it. That is the reason smartphone penetration is likely to grow in the next three to five years,” Mr Soumendra said, noting that the exponential growth of data services is partly hinged on a generation of Gen Zs, who talk less, but spend more on internet access.
UCC data shows that mobile phone subscribers in Ugandans are now spending an average of UGX 13,369 per month, which is more than what they spend on any other telecommunication services.
In 2024, Airtel rolled out 310 sites, 48% of which were 5G, and 516kms of fibre network across the country as part of the continuous investment.
The telco is actively investing in Voice Over LTE (VOLTE), an innovation that allows affordable, high-quality voice calls off an existing data bundle or plan.
“We have invested technical and financial resources in this innovation that allows customers to make calls over the internet, it is cheap and improves their service experience,” he said.
Last year, Airtel’s profit after tax grew 6.7% to UGX 316.7 billion and during last week’s Annual General Meeting, the telco’s board recommended a final dividend of UGX 2.5 per share for the year ended 31 December 2024, resulting in a full year total dividend payout of UGX 7.88 per share.