In Uganda's highly competitive telecommunications sector, new player Warid Telecom has reached 1 million subscribers in just eight months of commercial service.

The jump in subscribers since March, when the company launched, can be attributed to aggressive marketing, said Warid Telecom chief executive Zul Javaid.

"For us, this is a high milestone," Javaid said. "We have hit our target three months before we intended to."

The company had originally set a target of reaching 1 million customers after 12 months of operation.

"We think the success we have had has been driven by giving the Ugandan population what they want, and that is the response that the market has given us in such a short time," Javaid added.

Giving the population what it wants, according to Javaid, involves Warid's US$250 million GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) network. The company built the network in order to take on MTN Uganda, Uganda Telecom and Zain Uganda, all of whom having been operating in the country for more than five years.

Uganda's three preeminent mobile operators have struggled to reach 1 million subscribers, though Uganda Telecom reached that figure early this year.

Javaid emphasized that Warid has only counted active lines in its statistics, as some companies include dormant lines among their subscriber numbers.

Warid's aggressive marketing tactics involved heavy advertising and decreased calling prices, going so far as to offer users free calls within 24 hours of purchasing airtime. Most observers believe it was this offering, known as "Mega Bonus," that has driven Warid Telecom's subscriber base to 1 million in such a short period of time. The campaign has since come to an end, but Warid is exploring ways of extending it.

With just 12,500 phone lines in 1998, Uganda now boasts a thriving mobile market that is expected to reach 6.8 million subscribers by the end of the year.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.