KAMPALA — Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), the telecom sector regulator has said the new revised telecommunications framework will attract more investors in the industry.
UCC says the the new licensing regime was reviewed to ease market entry of new operators and increase competition and consumer choice in the telecommunication sector.
It will also enhance quality of service provision in the sector as well as promoting innovation and investment in the telecommunication sector.
Key among other benefits, the new framework will see an increase in broadband rollout and local ownership in the sector and hence reduce capital flight.
As part of the roadmap towards the development of the new license framework, on the 5th of April 2019, UCC published a public consultation paper, wherein all key stakeholders and the general public were requested to comment and provide feedback regarding the proposed license structure.
The consultation paper presented 12 thematic questions that sought to obtain views, comments and suggestions from the public regarding the salient features of the proposed license framework.
The consultation elicited written responses from most of the operators in the sector and the general public, and in summary, the views included:
Stakeholder expressed fear that changing the framework might disrupt the sector and result in over-regulation as
affecting the rights of existing operator’s licenses.
Other stakeholders protested the new fees in the framework arguing that many other levies and taxes already overburden the sector.
Other asked UCC to regulate Over the Top service providers since they are providing competing services to the traditional telecom providers.
Whereas most operators welcomed the proposal to include infrastructure sharing as a key license obligation, they warned UCC against implementing number portability since the same has failed in most African markets.
