Airtel Uganda, the country's leading provider of prepaid, postpaid mobile and 4G services, has partnered with United States-based multinational technology company Avaya to help organisations implement remote working and learning given the current limited access to offices, schools and universities as the government tries to contain Covid-19 transmissions.
In a joint statement on Monday, the companies said Avaya would offer Ugandan organisations full-feature access to Avaya Spaces - a cloud meeting and team collaboration solution that goes beyond integrating chat, voice, video, online meetings and content sharing - on a complimentary basis through Airtel Uganda.
“We fully support the range of measures being taken by the government to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic." Airtel Uganda managing director V.G Somasekhar said.
"At the same time, we understand the challenges that these measures bring to the delivery of services and education. Our partnership with Avaya supports key sectors by enabling organizations to maintain the safety of workers, students and customers as their top priority, while ensuring minimum disruption to everyday business."
Avaya Spaces works on all Android and iOS smart devices and can also be securely accessed on personal computers and laptops via the Chrome or Firefox browsers.
It enables teachers and administrative staff to reliably communicate with parents, students and each other. Students will be able to participate in virtual classrooms from any location, with the ability to download study materials and send assignments to teachers electronically.
The app also allows employees to hold virtual meetings, share documents and manage tasks and establish dedicated digital forums where teams can engage non-stop on specific projects.
Since January, Avaya has seen an increase of more than 3,000 percent in video collaboration traffic on the Avaya Spaces platform.
Several hundred universities, schools and other organizations worldwide have engaged the company to gain the connectivity and collaboration capabilities the platform provides as they address the challenges of Covid-19 pandemic.
According to real-time data service Worldometer, more than 4.18 million people around the world have now been infected with virus first detected in China last December. Nearly 284,000 have died, while close to 1.5 million have recovered.
“As the Covid-19 crisis has developed, we have reacted quickly and decisively in providing collaboration technology on a complimentary basis to help those most affected," said Fadi Hani, vice president for Middle East, Turkey and Africa at Avaya.
"We are proud to be able to do the same in Uganda in partnership with Airtel Uganda, which is has shown its commitment to social obligations. Together, we aim to help Ugandan organizations minimize the disruption caused by Covid-19 and begin building a brighter future."
Airtel Uganda also recently announced reaching a milestone of 2,000 network masts across the country. With the availability of this countrywide 4G LTE connectivity, students and teachers can access the app seamlessly, Monday's statement said.
The East African country has one of the lowest number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 so far on the continent at 121, out of which 55 people have recovered and no deaths have been recorded.