Business users often have different needs compared to individual users. So the kind of service level they expect is obviously different from consumer-focused service providers. Business users for instance value great support and dedicated services and are ready to pay a premium for it.
Now before you spend your money on an ISP, here are a couple of questions you need to ask before settling on a service provider thanks to Stephen Senkomago Musoke:
- Where are you located
- Do you want ISP for an office location, or for home use
- How many users does the solution need to support
- Do you need to support staff who are mobile and on the go or at stationery office
- What is your typical usage like? email, sharing documents, sharing large files, audio and video conferencing?
- Are you looking for larger bandwidth or is reliability of the link an important consideration (both will cost you more so you may need to pick the more important one)
- Do you have any other “special” needs for your solution
Having considered those questions, here are 5 Internet Service providers (ISP) in Uganda suited for business customers.
Smile Communications
Even though highly consumer-orientated, Smile Uganda offers great internet packages for business customers. The 4G LTE ISP prides in offering reliable and fast internet connectivity for its customers.
Smile’s iconic 4G MiFi is best suited for individual and small teams of less than 8 people. It goes for UGX 240,000 and comes with 5GB of data valid for 30 days. The company is also offering a Wi-Fi router that comes with a SIM card and 10GB data (valid 30 days) for UGX 410,000 for Small Business Owners.
Smile internet data packages vary between 5GB which goes for UGX 90,000 to 50GB which is priced at UGX 530,000.
Foris Telecom (Now Defunct)
Similar to Smile is Foris Telecom except it’s a lot more business-y. Foris is offering prepaid packages, unlimited and dedicated internet services. Foris (http://inug.co.ug/) or “In” is offering data packages ranging from 10GB to 30GB for a price of UGX 90,000 and UGX 240,000 under Bronze and Titanium packages respectively.
If your business needs dedicated internet, then you have to cough $300 for 1Mbps speeds although if you want faster speeds of upto 2Mbps, then be ready to remit $900.
Foris Telecom devices are fairly affordable for business customers. They have a portable Wi-Fi router that goes for UGX 250,000.
Roke Telecom
Roke Telecom is yet another business ISP. This is not a provider that will deliver internet to your smartphone so you can surf Facebook or Twitter on the go. Roke Telecom like the rest of the ISPs listed above offer fixed-line internet services. Meaning they deliver internet to your premise, perhaps on stationary computers.
Roke was a little murky about their internet services and pricing when we asked them. They prefer to deal with clients on a case by case basis, starting with understanding your premise and your needs. These factors determine the final package and pricing that’s suited for you.
On a general basis though, Roke offers 10GB per month at UGX 100,000 although with the initial one-time installation cost, this figure goes up to UGX 200,000. The 20GB package goes for UGX 200,000 with speeds upto 2Mbps on off peak hours.
Now if you prefer unlimited (which you should for a business), then be ready to remit $177 (about UGX 480,000) although your speeds will be throttled to a mere 512Kbps.
One Solutions (Now Defunct)
OneSolutions (https://onesolutions.ug) Uganda which is fairly new to the market, bills itself as “the first company in Uganda to provide fully integrated business technology solutions for small and large companies”.
Beyond mere internet services, the company offers End-to-End IT solutions, managed networking, secure E-mail, VPN and LAN, Disaster recovery among other services you can contact them on.
If you are interested in internet, the ISP seems to have a one-size-fits-all kind of packaging. For a price of $200 per month, you can get business-level internet services from OneSolutions.
Datanet
Established in 1999, Datanet is yet another business centered ISP Uganda offering competitive data services. The ISP offers IP-telephony, Ethernet services, VSAT and cloud services in addition to Internet services.
Again as with all other business ISPs, Datanet was murky about their services. So not until you contact them directly at which they do a requirement analysis for your business, will you get their data packages and prices. However, you are most likely to find unlimited internet from Datanet with speeds upto 1Mbps for about $250 per month according to unofficial sources.
So there you have it; 5 worthwhile ISPs for business owners. Now there are more notable providers like Infocom (now Liquid Telecom), One2Net, AFSAT communication (satellite ISP), Kampala Siti cable, Bushnet, TruIT but we didn’t have sufficient information about them. Obviously mainstream mobile Telecoms like Uganda Telecom, Orange Uganda and MTN Uganda too have business-centric packages, but this blog has already written enough about them.
Image: andysowards.com