The ‘big’ shots and stakeholders in the telecoms industry are meeting today to chat out the future of the information and communication technologies sub-sector, as the duopoly of MTN and uganda telecom expires next July.
“This will be a workshop for stakeholders to discuss the future,†Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) chief Patrick Masambu (left), said.
The discussions will be held at the International Conference Centre, Kampala.
Arguably, the timing of the workshop is important as the non-renewable exclusivity licences for communications giants MTN expires in June, 2005.
This will open the market to full competition.
The development comes at a time when the industry is in an upward growth trend.
UCC’s comparative statistics indicate that the mobile phone business is close to one million subscribers, up from just 300,000 two years ago.
But existing operators claim the mobile telephone market is saturated.
Masambu dismisses the claims, saying they were being peddled by operators to win the extension of the duopoly. Potential investors, who have carefully studied the market, are watching as the agreed duopoly period comes to an end.
Their hopes are that when it ends, the market will be opened up for them to introduce new mobile services, not offered by the existing firms.
Ends
Telecom roadmap meeting today
