Uganda has opened up the telecommunications infrastructure market to full competition, ending the exclusivity period that has been enjoyed by MTN Uganda, Uganda Telecom and Celtel Uganda over the past six years.
MTN and Uganda Telecom held National Telecommunication Operator licences, which allowed them to roll-out infrastructure for their use as well as for other operators' use, while Celtel Uganda held the Cellular Telecommunications Operator licence.
Celtel, by virtue of its licence, was only allowed to put up infrastructure for its own use. Aside from the three companies, there are other players who had been allowed to build infrastructure before the 1996 policy.
The infrastructure (plant, equipment and systems associated with the transmission, reception and switching of telecommunication signals) provisioning will open up to full competition effective 1 November.
"For purposes of providing a holistic licensing environment (services and infrastructure), the ministry of ICT has decided to open up the infrastructure market to full competition," a Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) document reads in part.
Up to the end of the exclusivity period, the main infrastructure providers have been MTN, Uganda Telecom and Celtel. The rest of the operators, who had infrastructure, implemented it for their own use, as opposed to making it available for other users as well.
The five-year exclusivity period that limited competition in basic telephony service, cellular telecommunications service and satellite service expired on 24 July 2005.
The decision to open up the infrastructure market follows the May 2006 ministerial guidelines on telecommunications services provision, which became operational on 14 August 2006.
In May however, the guidelines did not cater for the opening up of the infrastructure provision and for purposes of providing a holistic licensing environment. The minister for ICT has acted by opening up that provision.
Following the new guidelines on infrastructure provision, UCC has prepared a corresponding licensing regime and subsequently licences, which shall be issued to the applicants.
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