THE information and communication technology ministry will compel telecom companies to share transmission masts, Dr. David Turahi, the director of information technology and information (ICT) management services, has said.
Turahi said the measure was aimed at reducing the increasing number of masts being constructed in the country.
He said the ICT ministry would partner with the National Environmental Management Authority and the Uganda Communications Commission to ensure the companies comply.
Four telecom companies are operating in the country. These are WARID Telecom, MTN, Zain, and uganda telecom.
The fifth company, Hits Telecom, is yet to launch its services.
Turahi said the measure follows complaints from the public over the mushrooming mobile phone transmission masts (base stations).
The public, he said, expressed concern over human and environmental health hazards that might result from electric and magnetic field (EMF) emissions from the ever-increasing masts. “We shall ensure the erection of masts is reduced, especially on hill tops,” Turahi promised.
He was addressing the national Internet governance forum at the Grand Imperial Hotel in Kampala, recently.
The forum was dedicated to discussing issues pertaining to Internet regulation and cyber crime.
Similar workshops were held simultaneously in three other East Africa countries, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda.
Turahi also said the ministry was in final stages of setting up a data centre in Kampala and a bar camp in Jinja to popularise the ICT industry.
The five member states of the East African Community (EAC) are also coordinating efforts to harmonise and pass cyber crime laws that would be applied in the region.
The EAC formulated a common information security policy on cyber crime to serve as a foundation for the new laws.
The new laws would allow member countries to prosecute cyber criminals regardless of where the crime was committed in the region. However, progress has been slow in all five countries.
The final harmonized legal framework is to be considered by the EAC Taskforce on Cyber Laws in Burundi in September and adopted by the relevant organs of the EAC by November 2008.
Analysts say that although the EMF levels, when measured, are very low - up to a few thousandths of the permitted levels, their continuous and whole-body nature of the exposure, makes it important to be regulated.
Radios, televisions and other communications networks also emit EMF emissions.
Radio transmitting towers have been operating for almost a century and in some cases at much higher levels of public exposure.
