The liberalisation of the communications industry is perhaps Uganda's most
successful privatisation initiative. The sector has experienced explosive growth
and is still set to undergo more exciting developments.
To date there are two licensed National Operators and one Private Network Operator.
Over 500 licenses have been issued in the areas of broadcasting, internet services,
international data gateway, Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSAT), public pay
phones, private data lines, paging, telex and fax bureaux, equipment vendors
and courier services. The monopoly of the two National operators (Uganda Telecom
and MTN) came to an end in May 2006, when the Uganda Communications Commission
requested for interested parties to apply for National Operator licenses.
Currently it’s estimated that there are over one and a half million active
mobile phone subscribers in the country. The number of mobile phone users has
greatly surpassed that of fixed line users, a trend expected to continue.
The internet market in Uganda has also been liberalised. There are approximately
7,000 Internet subscribers in the country with demand expected to increase,
as evidenced by an explosion of cyber-cafés in Kampala and several major
towns around the country. There are currently approximately twenty licensed
Internet Service Providers (ISP).
To further strengthen the industry, radio and television sectors were both
liberalised and currently have six terrestrial television stations, one satellite
television provider and over 50 operational FM radio stations out of over 120
licensed to operate.
PricewaterhouseCoopers' leadership in audit, accountancy, tax, business advisory,
privatisation, project finance, corporate recovery, corporate finance and legal
services sets the quality of our advice apart from that of our competitors in
Uganda.
We are the leading provider in Uganda of professional services to private and
public sector companies in the communications sector.
