PERFORMANCE OF THE 1996 TELECOM POLICY

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• PERFORMANCE OF THE 1996 TELECOM POLICY
• Irene Kaggwa-Sewankambo,
• Technical Officer -Licensing and Standards

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SCOPE

• Competition and current licensing regime
• Performance of the 1996 Policy against its goals

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HISTORY OF COMPETITION IN THE SECTOR

• Introduced in 1993 1st mobile cellular service
  operator licensed as a minor service (value
  added) Clovergem Celtel
• Under the opening of the value added services
  1995 1996 Licences issued for paging services,
  satellite services (private voice and data
  services), VSAT services, public pay telephone,
  mobile trunked radio services, and customer
  premises internal block wiring services ,

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FRAMEWORK OF LICENSING REGIME

• 1996 Policy basis for new regime
• August 1997 enactment of Uganda Communications
  Act (Cap 106) legislative framework
• Current licensing framework
• major licences (include local, long distance or
  international telephone services, trunk capacity
  resale, rural telecommunications, store and
  forwarding messaging, cellular or mobile
  services) issued by Minister responsible for
  Communication on recommendation of UCC
• minor licences issued by UCC,

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CURRENT LICENSING REGIME

• Exclusivity Period 5 year limited competition to
  National Telecom Operators and previously issued
  licences.
• NTOs a unified licence for all telecom
  services. Held by 2 (UTL and MTN)
• Cellular UTL, MTN and Celtel. Celtel licence
  modified to a major licence
• Internet Access Service- 18 licensed. Open to
  competition with restriction on international
  data gateways
• Public pay communications network services open
• 3rd party network providers restricted. 3
  licences issued
• Rural communication licences open
• Inherited licences from 1983

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LEVEL OF COMPETITION

• At least 2 service providers or operators in
  service market
• Challenge introduced by competition of major
  licence (unified) and minor licence(service
  specific and with restrictions) holders in the
  same market

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MANAGEMENT OF SCARCE RESOURCES

• Radio spectrum managed by UCC. Usage of spectrum
  associated with a specific frequency licence that
  has fees separate from service licence.
• Numbering recognised by 1996 Policy as important
  to backbone. Allocated by UCC at no fee to
  respective operators. National Numbering Plan
  was reviewed 2003.

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PERFORMANCE OF POLICY AGAINST ITS GOALS

• Penetration increased from only 0.28 lines per
  100 persons in 1998, to over 4.2 lines per 100
  persons in 2004.
• Over 90 switching and transmission networks have
  been digitalized
• New services and packaging introduced (e.g.
  pre-paid system)
• All 56 districts have presence of voice
  communication and Internet at 20 district
  headquarters. (Rural communications development
  programme and licensing obligations)

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FACTORS CAUSING LOW UPTAKE OF SERVICES

• The low per capita income with many living below
  the poverty line
• Inadequate consumer empowerment
• The low level of integration of ICTs in daily
  activities and service delivery
• strong culture of face to face contact before
  any business can be concluded.
• Lack of appropriate local content.

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• Thank you