Telkom Kenya – Orange unveils more affordable smartphones

TELECOMS

Orange has brought a new entry-level, 3G enabled smartphone into the local market.

The Huawei Gaga, retailing for KSh 8,799 is targeted at middle income earners, students and young professionals. Orange says it also brings with it a new experience to accessing social media platforms – such as FaceBook and Twitter.

The 3G enabled device comes bundled with free one month unlimited data from Orange, has a 3.5 megapixel camera, amongst other innovative features, that allow for the user to share internet connectivity with colleagues with other Wi-Fi enabled devices in the same location.

This turns the Huawei Gaga into a portable Wi-Fi hot spot. The one month unlimited data bundle will be valid for 30 days on activation, after the customer makes a top up with any amount of airtime.

According to Telkom Kenya CEO, Mickael Ghossein, affordability of smart phones is critical to pushing the country’s internet penetration beyond the current rate of 8%.

A recent research by Informa Telecoms and Media shows that the 3G/WCDMA subscriptions had grown by 157% last year, representing 6% of the total mobile subscription in the region.

The report also indicates that by the end of 2011, smartphone connections represented 5% of Africa’s total mobile subscriptions.

But as part of aggressively growing the data revenues and subscription numbers, Ghossein affirmed that Orange was working to ensure greater access to affordable data devices such as laptops, handsets and modems.