{UAH} African Phone Beeps and the Pain of Call Cards
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African Phone Beeps and the Pain of Call Cards
Africans living abroad to date are facing their worst nightmare of extreme telephone bills not realising that many International call cards are not providing customer expectations.
A beep is all it takes from a beloved mother, sister, brother or father from home-, not that they usually call but a beep is a sign of an urgent call back and one goes rushing to buy a call card at a nearby off licence.
It could be a good hour's walk or a trip on the bus but before you get to the shops, your phone will be going off every 30 seconds, now that is intense urgency but it might not!
In UK alone, an average of every foreigner's income goes towards these calls but have you ever wondered how many minutes the cards promise to offer soon as you type in the pin number and how many you use in total by the end of the call.
There a lot disgruntled customer of "Talk Home"<Talk Direct " Libera and many others who usually promise 100 minutes to for example to Uganda on an MTN number and even more minutes to a Mango but by the first warning, one wonders how annoying these companies are and how easily they are take one for grunted.
The number of minutes used before it warns you is usually less, not even half of the expected amount granted at the beginning of the call. Some years ago, these card providers endowed their customers with so many minutes that finishing a card of £5 could take one a month but of late it only takes minutes.
Almost all super markets & energy companies, council taxes bills and others have increased their prices and so we must watch out for the pennies but why do these companies get away with imparting onto us high expectations and only to deliver almost nothing, one wonders.
The new Libera network offers mobile deals as well as free calls to similar networks. One could think it to be very cheap but if other networks dial it, despite being on a contract, they end up with extremely expensive bills because it is not included in UK Phone networks.
Irene Negusa, 56, Conventry, gave Libera a try and said: This is day time robbery, at this time of hard financial circumstances for everyone, this is just not acceptable.
"What a joke, I have had enough of parting with the only finances and now am only calling home if it is necessary and using Face book and Skype or email.
She had last bought credit worth £5 on Talk Direct, despite a promise of 500 minutes, the call only lasted 50 minutes, not even an hour.
Not only is it annoying and frustrating having to end a call prior to the end of the anticipated conversation but it's infuriating as this could be the actual start of the reason for that beep.
Africans will make it their obligation to ask about everyone and everything including the only heifer that just gave birth.
In US, cards such as "Boss" are used, for a $5 card, 15 minutes are provided. On average that sounds like a fairer deal compared to the rip off in UK.
The few Nigerians I spoke to seem quite happy with their purchasing powers and watching them on their mobiles every day, talking to family members confirms this.
An investigation into the use of their mobile phones was one thing I could not resist although I must say, it was almost fruitless getting an exact answer, maybe I was being over inquisitive or invading their privacy but one of them gave me an interesting answer. He advised that the Nigeria government has a satellite at the moon thus the low costs of international calls.
The truth is calls to India and Nigeria compared to Mugabe's Zimbabwe and Museveni's Uganda are so expensive that maybe the presidents elected are not realising the dream of a powerful economy within a smooth communication system.
UK telecom companies are yet to invest in contract phone lines to Africa. Whereas landlines offer deals to Europe, Australia and US, there no investors willing to venture into this lucrative deal and yet Africans are well known for one main thing-family values and the necessity to stay or keep in touch .
Speaking to the National standards Bureau in UK, they advised that we need to file a complaint with the company itself and if it is not resolved then it can be escalated to Omubudsman.
Please feel free to leave a comment or tell us about your telephone card experiences.
Pendie Wasswa is Ugandan born. Journalist, Human Rights Activist and Writer.
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Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
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