Press Release
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Following the end of the exclusivity period for the two National Operators, UTL and MTN and the development of a new Telecommunications Policy which is going the stages of government.
The Minister for Works, Housing and Communications has issued the following Guidelines to be applied by the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC):
The Communications (Telecommunications Policy) Guidelines
The following licences shall, upon successful application, be granted by the Uganda Communications Commission UCC):-
- All telecommunication services provided over the infrastructure of Public Infrastructure providers namely UTL, MTN and Celtel;
- International Data Gateway facilities to Internet Service Providers;
- Establishment and operation of Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) facilities for private networks;
- Trunk Capacity Resale.
This Guideline may be cited as the Uganda Communications (Pronouncement of Telecommunications Policy) Guideline, 2006.
As a result of the above guidelines, it is now possible for the following licences to be issued:
- For the provision of all telecommunications services such as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) under regulations issued by UCC;
- For the establishment of IDG (International Data Gateway) facilities to ISPs (Internet Service Providers) who may wish to install their own gateways;
- For the establishment and operation of VSAT facilities by users to such call centres, Operators, Data Outsourcing companies, educational and research institutions, among others;
- For capacity resale
- to persons already permitted to install infrastructure of the type they have already invested in such as Internet Service Providers (ISPs);
- to persons whose core business is not in telecommunications but who possess private communications facilities with surplus capacity and wish to resale this to third parties such as Uganda Electricity Transmission Co. Ltd (UETCL)
- to new entrants in the ISP market operating their networks using the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band i.e. 2.4GHz and 5.7GHz band.
Any company interested to invest in the areas above is free to apply for a licence from Uganda Communications Commission. The existing National Operators no longer have a monopoly in the areas mentioned above.
Hon John Nasasira, Minister of Works, Housing and Communications