UCC approves Celtel Uganda's licence renewal
The report on the performance of Celtel Uganda Limited from 1993-2007 says that the company has met all its financial, technical and legal obligations and has regularly submitted audited books of accounts and paid the 1% levy. The report evaluated the company's roll out which showed that in 1993 the company covered only seven districts but by 2001 they covered 17 districts and have continued to roll out.
The report says the 2001 licence required Celtel to extend its network so as to provide coverage of all the formerly 56 districts. "The commission carried out an evaluation which confirmed that by November 2007, all the 56 districts had network coverage and has also fulfilled all its legal, financial obligations," the report adds.
The company accomplished signing of interconnection agreements with the former Uganda Posts and Telecommunications and MTN. It says for the period 1993-2001 Celtel fulfilled the general requirements when it offered voice services that met international standards and state of the art equipment at the time. According to the report, between 1993-2001, Celtel faced financial and operation challenges which did not enable it to extend its network as expected. However this changed over the years and it is evident now that Celtel has aggressively extended its network.
"The UCC intends to recommend to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Minister to grant an extension of Celtel's licence under the new licensing regime unless there are valid objections to the proposed extension," said the report.
It said that under the new framework, Celtel would be given two licences that include the Public Infrastructure Provider Licence (PIP) for a fifteen-year term which is renewable for another five-year term.
The second licence is the Public Service Provider Licence (PSP) for a five year term and it is also renewable subject to successful compliance with the licence provisions.
The company's managing director Yesse Oenga told HANA that the company has so far contributed about US$600,000 (Ush1bn) to the 1% levy that is being paid by all telecom operators and is used by the Rural Communication Development Fund (RCDF) to establish infrastructure for the under-served areas in the country.
"In line with Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), we provide educational materials like books to different schools, and we plan to give books to universities in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, Zambia, Malawi. We intend to invest more in pay phones and subsidize them; this directly creates employment, with operators getting between $35-$45 per month," said Oenga.
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