Uganda Telecom Launches 3G Services

Uganda Telecom (UTL) has launched a 3G network covering Greater Kampala, Entebbe and Jinja and will roll out to other districts like Mbarara by the middle of the year.

"We are taking the phone to a stage where it is the ultimate tool of communication, and not just for making and receiving calls. We are proud to bring this service to Uganda," UTL's CCO, Hans Paulsen told the local media.

"A video call will only cost sh400, sh1 per kilobyte (kb) when accessing the Internet and sh1 per kb when watching television," Paulsen added.

Already, all the local free to air television stations can be accessed on the service, but he said negotiations were on going with pay television stations GTV and DStv.

Figures from the Mobile World report that UTL ended last September with some 640,000 mobile subscribers - representing a market share of just over 16%. Uganda as a whole has a total of 3.9 million mobile subscribers - representing a population penetration level of just 13.3%.

UTL is majority owned by Lap Green, which also controls Rwanda based Rwandatel. Lap Green is an arm of the Libyan government, created to manage its portfolio of investments outside the country.

Posted to the site on 10th March 2008