Airtel Uganda has released a statement where it has revealed that their data sharing service known as “Tugabane” will no longer be available on three (3) of its data products like “Freaky Friday”, “Freaky Holiday” and Daily data bundles.

Tugabane enabled a user with an Airtel internet package to simultaneously use his or her package with another person irrespective of the person’s location within the country, and it usually came in handy when one intended to gift another with internet.

The service will no longer be available starting 21st July 2021.

“Kindly be informed that effective Wednesday 21st July 2021, the Tugabane service will no longer be available on Freaky Friday, Freaky Holiday and Daily data bundles”, reads the statement from the management of the second largest telecommunication company in Uganda.

The rest of the packages will not be affected by the cancellation.

“Please be advised only daily, freaky Friday and freaky holiday bundles were exempted from tugabane the rest qualify”, reads a response to a querry made to the post. This implies that monthly, weekly or other similar bundles that are not captured under the selected packages will be able to use the service.

Not less than 24 hours had passed before the intended target of 100 signatures was almost achieved in a petition that was initiated by the Uganda Consortium on Corporate Accountability (UCCA).

By press time, the petition has secured 94 signatures that are jointly calling for transparency of internet data services and charges by telecommunication companies in Uganda. The companies specifically targeted or mentioned in the petition include Airtel, MTN and Africell “among others”.

In the description of the petition, UCCA references the newly passed Excise Duty (Amendment), 2021, an amendment that removed the controversial Over the Top Tax (OTT), while introducing a new 12% tax.

“Recently, the Government of Uganda introduced a new 12% tax on the price of internet data”, the petition reads, and as a result, “…many Ugandan internet consumers have noticed a spike in the rate at which their internet data bundles run out”.

While the companies are required to impose the tax in compliance with the legal obligations, the companies, for example Airtel, have released statements to show that they would only impose the tax on business packages, as they consume the burden on the rest of the packages, (except for UTL that wholly imposed the tax on all internet data purchases).

The fear of the “petitioner” and the signatories to the petition is that there are repercussions on the internet data of users from the companies that have opted to levy the tax selectively or not made any statement regarding the implementation of the tax.

“(The implementation of the tax) suggests that the telecom companies are supplying their consumers with less data volumes than they are purporting to do, in order to offset the cost of the new tax”.

The petitioner believes that the above allegations are unlawful and are an abuse of the consumer protection laws of Uganda and are using the signatures for the petition to “call(s) upon the Uganda Communications Commission”(UCC), the regulator of telecommunication companies in Uganda to “investigate the activities, services and charges of these companies with the supply of internet data volumes, and to also compel them to come out” clearly on the way they are implementing the new law.

It would also be able to enable consumers to know how the money they pay is being used, and to be able to make “well-informed decisions” on the competitive options available for data.

There is growing support for the petition with people signing the petition expressing how “It’s critical that something gets done before it runs out of hand”, as corruption has already killed Ugandans more than it has for COVID – 19, the companies just got greedier, data being abnormal since 1st Jul 2021 among other feelings.

The ability to share Snapchat like disappearing stories or WhatsApp like status updates on Twitter will no longer possible after 3rd August following an announcement by the micro – blogging platform to discontinue the feature from its platform.

Fleets, similar to other social media platforms like WhatApp, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat and Facebook allows users to share messages, both text, pictures, gifs and videos on their profiles that would later disappear after the lapse of 24 hours.

The feature was introduced on Twitter in March 2020 later than the other platforms did, all mimicking snapchat, and a year and plus later, the company has stated that “Starting August 3, Fleets will no longer be available”.

In a thread, @TwitterSupport shared the justification for the discontinuation being that the feature did not achieve its intended objective. “We had planned for Fleets to help people feel comfortable joining the conversation in a low – pressure way”, its tweets read, and added that it has turned out that “Fleets were used mainly by those Tweeting the most”, however, it indicated that the company will be looking other ways “for people to share on Twitter”.

The company has further revealed that it would be focusing on new ways to enable people to shares, with “no plans of slowing down”.

In an article we published on the 1^st July 2021, we indicated that the Excise Duty (Amendment) Act, 2021 had taken effect and with it came the removal of the controversial Over the Top Services (OTT) tax, and the introduction of a new indirect 12% tax imposed on internet data, that telecommunication companies and internet service providers (ISPs)were yet to levy on the new data packages.

While some telecommunication companies and ISPs expressed that they would not be levying the taxes, others remained silent on their position, and a week later, many have resolved to impose the new tax, increasing further the cost of internet in the country, and further increasing the digital divide and impacting on the accessibility to digital services and internet.

By press time, four telecommunications companies and ISPs including Airtel, UTL, Lycamobile and Simba Fiber have made their intentions to clear to impose the tax, and have gone ahead to impose the tax, albeit in varying proportions.

Airtel for instance has indicated that it will only levy the tax on Fixed Internet Services (internet for businesses) where it has indicated that “…be informed that the Parliament of Uganda passed a new tax structure whereby an additional 12% Excise Duty Tax will apply on Internet Services effective 1^st July 2021…take note of our Airtel Business rates”.

Under the new Airtel rates, the fee for the shared plan has now increased from UGX. 350,000 (about 97.2$) to UGX. 392,000 (about 109$), and where the users have a “dedicated internet and data plans, the new tax rate will be imposed on a case by case basis basing for the internet users. The new rates do not affect non business packages, a presumption that probably the companies are willing to incur the burden of the tax.

UTL on the other hand has also released a communique where it insists that “our core internet prices remain unchanged”, and yet continued to impose the 12% tax “as per the directive” by the government under the new law, in which case “there will be an additional 12% Excise Duty taxed”.

The companies are however imposing an exemption to institutions that use internet for the provision of medical and educational services.

If you have a thing for quality videos or images, you have probably noticed that whenever you share a video or image via WhatsApp (app), the app tends to compresses them, and with that, the quality goes. A once 2mb video or image, would be compressed to about 200kbs, then you wonder whether the problem is with the photographer because of the pixelated image or not.

You also wonder why graphics designers insist that clients send any images to use in a design via another platform such as Bluetooth, email and not WhatsApp. This has been to maintain the quality of the image that would usually be compressed by WhatsApp.

According to wbetainfo, WhatsApp has submitted an update to the Google Play Beta Program, the new version 2.21.14.16, with features that among others, allows users the liberty to send images and videos in the best quality, or the quality of the user’s choosing.

New settings on the video and images quality are in development where a user can choose between “Auto (recommended)” which is currently available in that the video or image is compressed, “Best Quality” where the video or image is sent with the best quality that is available and “Data saver” in which compression is made because a user will have chosen Data saver on their phones.

Given the rate at which software updates are released, the new update is only a few days or weeks away.