Telecom giant Airtel Uganda Friday afternoon announced that it had partnered with Buganda Kingdom’s struggling K2 Telecom in a move that will see subscribers of the latter enjoy all the services offered by Airtel.
As part of the agreement, people in Buganda will get an opportunity to buy a co-branded K2-Airtel SIM cards in the 0708 series from any Airtel service center and other authorized outlets at a price of Shs2, 000.
Commenting about the development at Bulange Mengo, the Airtel Managing Director, VG Somasekhar said: “Through this partnership, we are giving back to the people of Buganda through provision of quality services and reviving the K2 brand so that Baganda continue to celebrate the pride within the Kingdom.”
Charles Peter Mayiga, the Buganda Kingdom Katikkiro (Prime Minister) said:
“I am pleased to announce to Buganda and Uganda that the Kingdom of Buganda has partnered with Airtel Uganda to relaunch K2 brand under the new code 0708 now offering. I urge all people in Buganda and Uganda to join K2 – Eyaffe.”
K2 telecom, which has been using the 073 code is estimated to have about 150,000 subscribers. It has been offering voice calls, SMs and internet data services.
However, it has had financial woes since it entered the competitive market over four years ago.
In May this year, Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) closed K2 telecom over Shs96m debt.
“We have had a long discussion with K2 telecom from 2013 up to 2018 until we realized that the Memorandum of Understanding that we had [with them] was not being fulfilled as expected, so we had to close in last week and closed them. We expect them to come back on table and probably clear the debt and then we shall re-open them,” Ian Rumanyika, the Manager Public & Corporate Affairs at URA told Business Focus at the time of closure.
It isn’t yet clear whether K2 telecom has already honored its tax obligations.
