Mobile subscriptions drop

Nov 05, 2017

However, telephone penetration remained stagnant at 63.7%, this implies that on average there are 63 active mobile sim cards for every 100 individuals

The executive director, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), Godfrey Mutabazi has revealed that for the first time in the last seven years, the sector posted a drop in mobile subscriptions between March and June this year.

Sharing the market report for the months April-June 2017 during a press briefing held at their main offices in Kampala on Friday, Mutabazi said at the end of June, total mobile subscriptions stood at 23, 608, 610 from 23, 665, 556 at the end of March 2017.

He said the mobile subscription within four months dropped to 56,946 and this was due to a drop in postpaid subscriptions motivated by the declining differential between pre-paid and post-paid tariffs.

"Sim card ownership harmonisation that is abandonment of extra SIM's by users as a result of the sim card verification and validation also lead to a drop in mobile subscriptions," he said

However, telephone penetration remained stagnant at 63.7%, this implies that on average there are 63 active mobile sim cards for every 100 individuals.

The sector trends are informed by different analysis done on the market and industry data largely extracted from the operational reports of licensees in Uganda's communications industry.

The information derived from the market and industry data covers key aspects of the communications sector in mobile and fixed, traffic growth, the communications infrastructure, Internet and data services, broadcasting, tariffs, and consumer affairs among others.

On a positive note, Mutabazi said at the end of June this year, mobile Internet subscriptions had grown by 14.5% compared to the growth rate achieved by end of March.

"This growth in mobile broadband uptake is attributed to increased price competition in the retail broadband market through the introduction of a very wide variety data bundle offers aimed at different consumer demographics," he said

He also noted that introduction of low cost internet enabled hand held devices/handsets by a number of players in the market.

 

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