Uganda expected to achieve 6 Million subscribers by year end (Uganda)
Uganda’s telecoms regulator, UCC expects the country to achieve six million subscribers by the end of this year, this will be largely due to market liberalisation.
According to Isaac Kalembe, a media and public relations specialist at UCC, With the coming in of new operator, Warid, and HiTS are expected to roll out soon, the figure could rise to six million by the end of this year.
The country has five mobile operators, the two incumbents UTL and MTN while Zain (formerly Celtel) was licensed in 2005. Warid launched its network in Februrary this year while HiTS Telecom is still waiting to launch its network.
According to figures from a database, the country ended Q1 ’08 with some 5.2 million mobile subscribers – representing a population penetration level of 17.4%
Uganda Telecom (UTL) recently launched a 3G network covering Greater Kampala, Entebbe and Jinja.
India’s Reliance Communication has received Spectrum allocation and plans to launch its Mobile services by end of 2008. The company says that following the acquisition – for an unspecified amount – it plans to spend up to US$500 million on building out the telecoms network.
That will bring the country to six active networks by the end of this year.
