Payway is a vending machine that can be found at supermarkets and are an ideal way of loading internet airtime for Orange network and airtime for all carriers let alone paying for DSTV, Startimes and Gotv.

It saves a lot of time for orange internet bearing in mind that if you had to buy scratch cards and you are lucky to get large denominations, you would have to enter one by one depending on what plan your on.

The payway vending machine, which does not give change or accept coins will load your airtime on the orange modem instantly in a few easy steps which takes the same time you would use on a scratch card but remember if you had Shs85,000 to load, then that will be at least a 50,000 card and a 20k, 10k card plus 5k to load.

The machine sends you an instant message on your phone to let you know that your transaction was successful on top of an instant receipt. There is a toll free number just in case you are stuck.

So if you are the type who was looking for an alternative around using many cards, then you could try the payway vending machine. You can also pay for water bills, buy an airticket with Air Uganda.

Things are getting better by the day. First it was Internet through a USB modem whose monthly price was Shs 85,000/- though you had to go to the head office on Hannington road or the Customer centre on Jinja road to recharge your account.

The price has since then been reduced to 60,000/- per month. Every time the service expired you had to go to those offices which by then were not operational on Saturdays now if Saturday was the only free day on you, then you were probably more disappointed.

All that is a thing of the past because much as the Jinja road office was closed leaving customers with the head office at Hannington road which by the way is open on Saturdays, you can now recharge you account by just buying airtime that can be loaded to the data sim card using your cell phone.

This means you just have to buy WARID airtime from any vendor load it on your account following these steps: *130* followed by your access number, then the hash key. To have one month you buy Shs 60,000/- airitime, Shs 20,000/- for one week and Shs 4,000/- for one day.

However on activating the sim card you must be very careful here. You need to send an sms to 158 depending on what package. If it is one month send data 30 to 158 and if it is one week, send data 7 to 158 and for one day send data 1 to 158.

A confirmation text will be sent to you confirming the credit on your data account which you can now remove from your phone and put to modem to get you back on air. In the bible it was written that those who have will be added and those who do not have, even the little they have will be removed from them.

If you buy 60,000/- per month, you will save 20,000/- compared to someone buying Shs20,000/- per week which will end up being Shs 80,000/- per month. It is even worse if you are going to buy Shs 4,000/- per day because you will end up paying Shs120,000/- per month. 

However, the option of buying Shs 4,000/- warid airtime per day has equally got its advantages, because honestly if you don't want the service for the entire 30 days, there is no point parting with the entire Shs 60,000/-
Related:WARID Modem Users Enjoy Price Cut

Warid Telecom Uganda has cut its monthly internet rate for modem users from shs 85,000/- to shs 65,000/- per month. This is part of the price war introduced by Orange Uganda that is charging Shs 49,000/- per month.

Warid Telecom still has the cheapest dongle or modem going for 150,000/- compared to Orange's dongle that goes for 199,000/- The war will soon shift from the price to whoever offers the best service. When it comes to internet, it is not a question of price but who's link is fast and that's what counts and soon we will be able to see whose link is having its head above the waters.

More players continue to join the market like Foris Telecom, Broadband company to offer affordable internet services. The internet population is about 3mn users but with monthly rates as low as 49,000/-  we are likely to see these numbers go up tremendously in the coming years.

Related:

• UTL Wireless Internet
• Telecommunication Carriers

There's no doubt the internet has become a way of life to many and investors are seeing every need to invest in this area with the latest being Foris Telecom who will be launching their services later in the month.

Foris joins the likes of Broadband company, Orange, WARID, MTN and UTL among others in offering internet based dongles or modems for that case. The service is so convenient because it is a plug and play arrangement. No installations or dish outside your house are required other than plugging it into your computer and within a click you're having the world in your palms.

Foris which is yet to launch promises a better package over and above those on the market as its dongle will be a 4G compared to the 2Gs and 3Gs that other players in the market are using. The dongle business once followed closely can be a good venture per say because you are targeting homes, individuals who actually out number companies.

Foris is now targeting homes and individuals and they will deploy a sales team that will literally go door to door marketing their services.

        
Amazingly this building cannot be missed from any corner of Kampala.

Coffee shops and airports the world over are known to have hotspots allowing you to surf the web at no extra fee other than the price you pay for your cup of coffee. Panorama Coffee Shop on 9th floor workers house will do exactly that for you.

With your laptop or GPRS phone coupled with the modern design and artistic scenery, you will be having an aerial view of Kampala from the 9th floor at workers house as you look at what is latest on Ugandaonline.net. It is not very large to accommodate again so many people, but that is what makes it lovely.

On getting there as you place your order for whatever bites, you also request for a password to enable you surf on the go.

You must have heard UTL advertising the internet moonlight packages and wondered what they were and what was involved. Before we get into the details of the package let's understand the timings when the package is available and when it is not.

The service is available from 7:00pm to 7:00am. This means that during they day the service is not available so before thinking of whether this the type of service you could be interested in, then you take note of the above timings.

For 60,000/- you will be connected to 64Kbps tax inclusive, 115,000/- you get 128Kbps and up to 256Kbps, you will be connected to 195,000/-.

If you can connect for yourself you could save 50,000/- as set up charge and if you cannot that is a cost you should budget for on top of a plug and play modem which is 70,000/-

For more information on the moonlight package contact: customercare.info@utl.co.ug or you can call 300 (Toll Free).

Otherwise for broadband packages that are available 24/7 broadband 64Kbps is $106.2* the rate which is 2150 making it 228,330/- per month. Broadband128 and Broadband256 goes for shillings 431,290/- and 761,100/- respectively.

There is some hope come this June when the fibre optic cables roll out, broadband rates are expected to drop drastically. Having waited for over three years and the cable is not getting here, you can as well do with alternatives in the meantime just in case the cable does not roll out.