Sotir 2014

Postal, Broadcasting and Telecommunications
Annual Market & Industry Report 2015/16.
1 |ANNUAL MARKET REPORT 2015/2016 FINANCIAL YEAR

LEGAL DISCALIM ER
The information and figures contained herein were obtained from licensees’
submissions to Uganda Communications Commission and other sources available
to the Commission. It is intended to provide an overview of the industry
performance to the stakeholders for the period 1st July 2015 to 30th June 2016
financial year. UCC does not give any warranty and is not liable for any loss or
damage arising from its use or misuse.

TABLE OF CONTENT
Contents Page
LIST OF AC RON YM S ................................................................................................................................................................... 4
EXECUTIVE SUMM ARY ............................................................................................................................................................. 6
ECONOM IC OUTLOOK IN COMM UNICATIONS PERSPECTIVE ........................................................................ 9
UGANDA’S GDP TREND AN D TELEDENSITY .............................................................................................................10
TELEDENSITY AND POPULATION GROW TH RATES............................................................................................11
INFLATION AS AN ECON OM IC DEFLATOR ................................................................................................................12
THE TREND IN FOREIGN EXC HANGE RATES IN UGX PER USD ................................................................13
ICT DE VELOPMENT-THE GL OBAL PERSPECTIVE ................................................................................................14
THE N ATION AL PERSPECTIVE ..........................................................................................................................................17
THE C OMM UNICATIONS SECTOR C ONTRIBU TIONS TO TAX REVENUE ..............................................17
SUBSCRIPTION AND PENETRATION ..............................................................................................................................18
M OBILE SUBSCRIPTION .........................................................................................................................................................18
BANDW IDTH ...................................................................................................................................................................................20
TRAFFIC ............................................................................................................................................................................................21
INTERNET SUBSCRIPTION AND USE.............................................................................................................................23
POSTAL AND COU RIER SERVICES..................................................................................................................................25
INTERNATION AL POS TAL TRAFFICS ............................................................................................................................26
POSTAL AND COU RIER SERVICE PROVIDERS .......................................................................................................27
BROADCASTING SERVICES .................................................................................................................................................27
OTHER DEVELOPM ENT IN THE BROADC ASTIN G SU BSECTOR ..................................................................29
THE DIGITAL M IGRATION ....................................................................................................................................................31
M OBILE M ONEY (MM ) ..............................................................................................................................................................32
CONSUMER AFFAIRS ...............................................................................................................................................................34
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................................................................35

LIST OF ACRONYM S
EAC East African Community
EM S Expedited Mail Services
FY Financial Year
GDP Gross Domestic Product
ICT Information Communication Technology
UCC Uganda Communications Commission

FORWARD
It is clear that ICTs are a key component of the overarching science, technology
and innovation portfolio that is driving change and more importantly growth.
ICTs have become recognized as essential ingredients for any society as it strives
towards experiencing sustainable economic growth and development. In this
industry, the stakeholders need to embrace the dynamics of new innovations and
ICT technological developments, and in most cases embrace and take advantage
of the opportunities they present.
The information presented in this report is a reflection of the sector performance

for the Financial Year 2015/2016 or rather the period from 1st July 2015 to 30th
June 2016. The following are covered in this report:
1. National Economic Outlook

2. ICT Global Perspective
3. ICT EAC Perspective
4. Revenue from the sector
5. Fixed Telephony
6. Mobile Telephony
7. Broadband and Internet
8. The Broadcasting sub sector
9. Postal and Courier sub sector
10. Consumer Affairs
As a result of the significant impact of communications services in business,

political and economic domains, the Commission has undertaken numerous
interventions to enhance and attract innovations and investment in the sector
with the creation of an enabling and competitive environment, a clear focus on
quality of service and addressing consumer concerns.

EXECUTIVE SUM MARY
THE SECTOR CONTRIBUTION TO TAX REVENUE
During the period July 2015 to June 2016, both Exercise and PAYE dropped by
18.2% and 8.3% respectively. There was a 19.5% rise in revenue collected from
VAT. Howe ver the total sector contribution to tax revenue dropped by 5.5% down
from UGX 484.42bn in FY 2014/15 to UGX 457,640bn in FY 2015/16.
M OBILE SUBSCRIPTION
A total of 123,889 new mobile subscribers were registered in the FY ending June
2016. This is a 0.6% growth in mobile subscription, and lower than the 14.6%
subscription growth registered in the previous period. Total mobile phone
subscriptions now stand at 22,034,837.
FIXED SUBSCRIPTION
A total of 34,838 lost in fixed subscription were registered in the FY 2015/16. This is
a 0.9% drop and lower than the 43% growth in fixed subscription registered in the
previous FY 2014/2015. Total fixed subscriptions now stand at 340,851.
TELE DENSITY
The above subscription statistics resulted into a 2.7% drop in tele density, from
63.9% in 2014/15 to 61.2% in FY 2015/16.
BANDW IDTH
The sector has continued to register positive growth in bandwidth. During the
review period, a 33.5% growth was registered resulting to a total bandwidth of
41,695.3mbps up from 31,222.8mbps realized in the previous year.
TRAFFIC
During the period under review, the on net traffic grew by 27.4% (4,484,450,204
minutes), compared to the 10.6% drop experienced in 2014/15 F/Y. Off-net
traffic dropped by 1.8% (-21,022,145), reflecting a decrease in interconnection
compared to the 48.3% growth registered in the previous FY. International

outgoing traffic dropped by 14.4% (40,133,494 minutes) and International
incoming traffic grew by 15.5% (59,462,789 minutes) respectively.
This increase is a positive development in terms of revenues realized from

international calls terminated in the country compared to the 7.7% growth
registered in the previous FY.
INTERNET SUBSCRIPTION AND USE

The estimated number of internet subscribers and internet users continued to
grow. For the period under review, the number of internet subscribers and users
grew respectively by 30.2% and 19.6% resulting in a 42.5% internet penetration
as of June 2016.
TARIFFS
As of June 2016, the lowest per second voice rate offered in the market is (2.5/=
per second). Due to the competitive nature and varied data offerings by operators,
the majority of internet tariffs available are based on daily and bundles / Data
plans with duration limits.
POSTAL AND COURIER SERVICES

The number of domestic ordinary letter posted dropped from 693,453 to 500,091,
representing a 28% drop. Domestic registered letters post dropped from 17,530 to
10,367 resulting to a 40.9% drop. The Domestic Expedited Mail Service numbers
grew by 4.2% from 143,207 to 149,267.
INTERNATIONAL POSTAL TRAFFICS

The number of incoming European letters was highest (278,869), compared to the
outgoing ones (121,803). The number of letters coming into Uganda from the East
African states was higher (36,627) than those posted from Uganda to rest of the
EA region (17,349).
POSTAL AND COURIER SERVICE PROVIDERS

The number of service providers in the postal subsector remained unchanged for
the period under review at 1, 11, 5 and 8 for the National postal, domestic
courier, Regional and International courier operators respectively.
THE DIGITAL M IGRATION

Uganda has fully migrated from Analogue to Digital Migration as of June 2016.
Analogue to Digital Migration is the process in which broadcasting services offered

on the traditional analog technology are replaced with digital based networks over
a specific period. The transition or switch from analog television
to digital television is referred to as the Digital Migration.
The Analogue to Digital Migration arose out of the Regional Radio-communications

Conference of 2006 (RRC06) and the subsequent Geneva 2006 Agreement (GE06)
of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) „Recommendations‟ of which
Uganda is a party and signatory.
CONSUM ER AFFAIRS
In the period under review, a total of 160 complaints were received, a decline of
45% from 291 received in 2014/15 financial year. Ranked in descending order,
the highest number of complaints received by UCC were related to mobile money
services. This is followed by complaints about billings, broadcasting and quality of
service related issues.

With regards to the modes or channels through which complaints were submitted
during the period of review, 41.9% of the complaints were received through e -
mail, 35.6% of the complaints were received through phone calls.
13.1% of the complaints were received through walk - in, 7.5% of the complaints
were received through letters, and 1.3% of the complaints were received through
Facebook.
While the remaining 0.6% complaints were received through post/courier.
ECONOM IC OUTLOOK IN COM MUNICATIONS PERSPECTIVE

Economic Enablers and Deflators
There are macroeconomic indicators that influence the uptake of communications

services. These include GDP, GDP growth rate, GDP per capita, Income per
capita, population and population growth rates, employment and inflation rates
among others.
A comparative analysis of the Uganda population growth rates and teledensity

growth rates shows that there is some relationship. Looking at the trend from
2013/14 FY to date, it can be deduced that population growth rates correlate
with tele-density growth rates. For the period 2013/14 to 2014/15, the
population growth rate shift upwards from 3 to 3.4 and the tele-density growth
rate also shift from 5.6 to 10.6. The same pattern is also observed between
2014/15 and 2015/16.

Figure 1. Comparative data on Population growth rate, and Tele density
growth rate.
10.6
5.6
3 3.4 3.26
2013/14 2014/15 2015/16

-2.7
Teledensity growth rate Population growth rate
[Source: UCC and UBOS]
UGANDA’S GDP TREND AND TELEDENSITY

GDP, as a macro-economic indicator of aggregate wealth is associated with the
uptake of communications services. Tele-density (telephone density) is the
number of telephone connections for every hundred individuals living within a
defined geographical area (in this case country).
For the period under review Uganda‟s Tele-density as a proxy for the
consumption of communications services decreased while the GDP increased.
The decrease can be attributed to the deadline given to the telecom operators to
disable unregistered or partially registered SIM cards.

Figure 2. Relationship between Uganda’s GDP and Tele-density
70 90,000
80,000
60
70,000
50
60,000
TELEDENSITY
40 50,000
30 40,000
30,000
20
20,000
10
10,000
0 -
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Teledensity 31.6 33.5 45.6 46.5 47.7 53.3 63.9 61.2
GDP (BN) 28,176 33,596 37,412 45,944 53,202 59,202 68,400 84,448
Data source: UCC/UBOS
TELEDENSITY AND POPULATION GROW TH RATES

For the year under review, Tanzania reported the highest tele -density growth rate
of 8% followed by Kenya 6.1% then Rwanda 6.0%. Uganda reported a drop in
Tele-density growth rate of 2.7% probably due to a higher population growth rate
experienced in the year. However, Kenya still has the highest Tele-density of 90%.

Figure 3. Tele-density and Population growth rates by country
Teledensity Teledensity growth rate Population growth rate
90
79.1 79
61.2
6.0 6.1 8.0

2.4 3.3 2.7 3.2
-2.7
RWANDA UGANDA KENYA TANZANIA
Data source: Country Website
INFLATION AS AN ECONOM IC DEFLATOR

As indicated in Figure 4 below, the inflation rates for all the EAC states for the
review period have been between 5.5 and 6.3%. A closer look at the patterns
shows that between 2005 and 2013, Uganda had the highest fluctuation rates
than the rest of the EAC states. From 2013 to June 2016, Uganda‟s inflation
pattern fell to within the range of other EAC states. The analysis puts Rwanda at
the highest rate (6.3%) in 2016.

Figure 4. Inflation Patterns in EAC states
30
25
20
15
Inflation rates
10
-5
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Jun-16
UGANDA -1.7 2.4 7.3 6.4 14.6 9.5 5 24.1 4.7 2.9 4.9 5.9
KENYA 4.9 7.8 5.6 13.2 9.7 2.2 13.5 6.8 6.6 6.9 6.6 5.8
TANZANIA 6.4 5.3 9 10.1 7.4 6.9 9.2 11.4 11.2 6.1 4.7 5.5
RWANDA 9.5 9.8 9.8 13.4 9 4.3 9.1 6.2 5.2 1.3 3.6 6.3
Data source: Country Statistics reports
THE TREND IN FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATES IN UGX PER USD

Over time as shown in Figure 5 below, Uganda shilling has steadily depreciated
against US Dollar. The effect of this depreciation is that imports, which account
for the majority of the capital expenditure in the sector, have increasingly become
more expensive. With practically all re venues in the communications sector being
in UGX, this depreciation has impacted the bottom line of the majority of service
providers in the sector.
Furthermore, since the exchange rate is a proxy of a country's competitiveness in

the global market, this depreciation of the UGX is indicative of weakening and or
an erosion of Uganda‟s competitiveness and as a destination for investment
capital.

Figure 5. Exchange rates trend
4,000.00
3,500.00 RATE, 3,367.99
3,000.00
Exchange Rates
2,500.00
2,000.00
1,500.00
1,000.00
500.00
-
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Data source: Bank of Uganda
ICT DEVELOPMENT-THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Source: (http://www.itu.int/en/mediacentre/Pages/2016-PR30.aspx)
2016 marks the year when the international community is embarking on the
implementation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their 169
targets. ITU, given the tremendous development of ICTs, has a key role to play in
facilitating their attainment," says Brahima Sanou, the Director of the ITU's
Telecommunication Development Bureau. "ITU statistics inform public and
private-sector decision makers, and help us accomplish our mission: to make use
of the full potential of ICTs for the timely achievement of the SDGs."
The Internet
The 2016 data released by ITU, the UN specialized agency for information and
communication technology (ICT), show that 3.9 billion people remain cut-off from
the vast resources available on the Internet, despite falling prices for ICT services

ICT Facts & Figures 2016 shows that developing countries now account for the
vast majority of Internet users, with 2.5 billion users compared with one billion in
developed countries.
But Internet penetration rates tell a different story, with 81% in developed
countries, compared with 40% in developing countries and 15% in the Least
Developed Countries.
M obile broadband growth slowing
The 2016 edition of ITU's ICT Facts & Figures reveals that mobile phone coverage
is now estimated to cover 95% of the global population – or some seven billion
people – living in an area covered by a basic 2G mobile-cellular network.
Figure 6. M obile network coverage and evolving technologies
Advanced mobile-broadband networks (LTE) have spread quickly over the last
three years and reach almost four billion people today – corresponding to 53% of
the global population. But while the number of mobile -broadband subscriptions
continues to grow at double digit rates in developing countries to reach a
penetration rate of close to 41%, mobile-broadband penetration growth has
slowed overall. Globally, the total number of mobile-broadband subscriptions is
expected to reach 3.6 billion by end 2016, compared with 3.2 billion at end 2015.
Fixed broadband growth strongest in developed countries
Global fixed-broadband subscriptions are expected to reach around 12 per 100

inhabitants in 2016, with Europe, the Americas and the Commonwealth of
Independent States regions having the highest rates of penetration. Strong
growth in China is driving fixed-broadband in Asia and the Pacific, where
penetration is expected to surpass 10% by end of 2016.
ICT prices continue to fall
Mobile-broadband services have now become more affordable than fixed-

broadband services, with the average price for a basic fixed-broadband plan more
than twice as high as the average price of a comparable mobile-broadband plan.
Digital divide means half the world is still offline
By the end of 2016, more than half of the world's population – 3.9 billion people –
will not yet be using the Internet. While almost one billion households in the
world now have Internet access (of which 230 million are in China, 60 million in
India and 20 million in the world's 48 Least Developed Countries), figures for
household access reveal the extent of the digital divide, with 84% of households
connected in Europe, compared with 15.4% in the African region.
Global online gender gap widens
Internet penetration rates are higher for men than for women in all regions of the
world. The global internet user gender gap grew from 11% in 2013 to 12% in
2016. The regional gender gap is largest in Africa, at 23%, and smallest in the
Americas, at 2%.
Internet bandwidth

By early 2016, international internet bandwidth had reached 185,000 gigabits
per second, up from a low of 30,000 gigabits in 2008. Howe ver, bandwidth is
unequally distributed globally, and lack of bandwidth remains a major bottleneck
to improved Internet connectivity in many developing and Least Developed
Countries.
THE NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Since its establishment as the sector regulator, the Uganda Communications
Commission has licensed a number of communications service providers of
various categories offering International, Regional, national and domestic services
as listed below.
Table 1. Number of licensed service providers in the country, June 2016.
Category Licensed
National Postal Operator 1
Domestic Courier Operators 11
Regional Courier Operators 5
International Courier Operators 8
National Telecom Operators (NTO) 2
Public Infrastructure Providers (PIP) 23
Public Service Provider (PSP) - Voice & Data 26
PSP (Capacity Resale) 07
Digital TV stations 05
FM Radio stations 292
THE COM MUNICATIONS SECTOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO TAX REVENUE

During the period July 2015 to June 2016, both Exercise and PAYE dropped by
18.2% and 8.3% respectively. There was a 19.5% rise in revenue collected from

VAT. Howe ver total sector contribution to tax re venue dropped by 5.5% down
from UGX 484.42bn in FY 2014/15 to UGX 457,640bn in FY 2015/16.
Figure 7. Tax revenue in millions
350,000 600,000
300,000 500,000
250,000
400,000
200,000
300,000
150,000
200,000
100,000
50,000 100,000
- -
2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16
Excise 88,775 98,001 100,750 113,319 154,869 170,431 291,907 238,735
VAT 54,628 94,278 68,245 98,330 134,723 129,663 152,209 181,944
PAYE 12,176 22,562 30,643 33,252 43,138 43,659 40,305 36,961
Total 155,579 214,841 199,638 244,901 332,730 343,753 484,421 457,640
SUBSCRIPTION AND PENETRATION
M OBILE SUBSCRIPTION
A total of 123,889 new mobile subscribers
were registered in the FY ending June
2016. This is a 0.6% growth in mobile
subscription, and lower than the 14.6%
subscription growth registered in the
previous period (July 2014 to June 2015).
Total mobile phone subscriptions now
stand at 22,034,837.

FIXED SUBSCRIPTION
A total of 34,838 drop in fixed registered in the previous FY 2014/2015.
subscription were registered in the FY Total fixed subscriptions now stand at
2015/16. This is a 0.9% drop and lower 340,851.
than the 43% growth in fixed subscription
Tele density
The above subscriptions statistics resulted into a 3% drop in tele density, from 63.9%
in 2014/15 to 61.2% in FY 2015/16.
Table 2. Fixed, M obile and Total Subscription
Fixed and 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/2015 2015/16

Mobile
Subscriptions
Fixed
340,851
330,989 207,474 262,530 375,689
Mobile
22,034,837
15,535,989 16,665,310 19,244,020 21,910,948
Total
22,375,688
15,866,978 16,872,784 19,506,550 22,286,637

Figure 8. Total Subscription and Teledensity
25,000,000 70
63.9 61.2 60
20,000,000
53.3 50
15,000,000 46.5 47.7 40
45.6
10,000,000 31.6 33.5 30
20
5,000,000
10
- 0
2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16
Subscription Teledensity
BANDW IDTH
The sector has continued to register positive growth in bandwidth. During the
review period, a 33.5% growth was registered resulting to a total bandwidth of
41,695.3mbps up from 31,222.8mbps realized in the previous year.

Figure 9. Total bandwidth and bandwidth per million inhabitants
1,139.4
45,000.00 1,200.00
Total Bandwidth
40,000.00 895.74
1,000.00
35,000.00 664.04 726.27 737.01
30,000.00 800.00
477.82
25,000.00
600.00
20,000.00
15,000.00 161.89 400.00
10,000.00
200.00
5,000.00
- -
2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16
Total Bandwidth 5,145.70 15,739.20 22,664.45 25,678.82 26,986.05 31,222.75 41,695.3
Bandwidth per 1,000,000 inhabitants 161.89 477.82 664.04 726.27 737.01 895.74 1,139.4
TRAFFIC
Voice traffic
On-net and off net-traffic
During the period under review, the on net traffic grew by 27.4% (4,484,450,204
minutes), compared to the 10.6% drop experienced in 2014/15 financial year.
Off-net traffic dropped by 1.8% (-21,022,145), reflecting a decrease in
interconnection compared to the 48.3% growth registered in the previous FY.
International outgoing traffic dropped by 14.4% (40,133,494 minutes) and

International incoming traffic grew by 15.5% (59,462,789 minutes) respectively.
This is a positive de velopment compared to the 7.7% growth registered in the
previous FY.
Table 3. Traffic trend 2008/09 to 2015/16

Level of Usage (tele-trafic) 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2015/16
on net 5,423,039,985 6,500,467,147 9,385,078,373 11,131,081,707 14,001,765,798 13,334,857,219 20,826,910,605
Off net 1,065,219,839 827,570,668 3,042,261,143 1,715,570,229 1,758,354,212 2,217,457,730 1,126,041,413
International Outgoing 147,328,246 107,229,800 173,375,156 227,838,466 265,611,641 259,516,953 237,892,159
International incoming 398,551,096 460,067,065 425,731,507 356,898,115 443,889,009
Figure 10: Traffic trend
on net Off net International Outgoing International incoming
25,000,000,000
20,000,000,000
15,000,000,000
10,000,000,000
5,000,000,000
0
2 0 0 8/09 2 0 0 9/10 2 0 1 0/11 2 0 1 1/12 2 0 1 2/13 2 0 1 3/14 2 0 1 5/16

INTERNET SUBSCRIPTION AND USE
As estimated, the number of internet subscribers and internet users continued to
grow as illustrated below. For the period under review, the number of internet
subscribers and users grew respectively by 30.2% and 19.6% resulting in a
42.5% internet penetration as of June 2016.
Figure 11. Estimated internet subscription and estimated internet users.

SUBSCRIBERS AND USERS
ESTIMATED INTERNET SUBSCRIBERS AND USERS

18,000,000
16,000,000
14,000,000
12,000,000
10,000,000
8,000,000
6,000,000
4,000,000
2,000,000
-
2008/9 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16
Subscriptions (Est) 58,648 541,000 934,758 1,679,259 3,556,851 4,303,013 6,179,698 8,048,973
Users (Est) 2,800,000 3,500,000 4,662,240 5,700,000 6,800,000 8,531,081 12,986,216 15,531,954
(Est) means estimated
Table 4. TARIFFS

As of June 2016, the tariff rates stand as follows
On-Net Off-Net
Category Lowest rate Highest rate Lowest rate Highest rate
Voice 2.5 5 3 7
standard /sec
Voice 249 3,000 n/a n/a
bundle/day
Voice 1,999 10,000 n/a n/a
bundle/week
Voice 4,999 200,000 n/a n/a
bundle/month
International n/a n/a 3.3 1,250
voice/sec
International n/a n/a 65 per day 200,000 per
voice bundle month
For more information on tariffs in Uganda, please check www.kompare.ug and

www.price-check.co.ug
Figure 12: Voice Tariffs (Local)

On-Net Off-Net
6.56.5
5 5 5 5
4 4 4
3.83.8
3.5
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
2.5
GSM Fixed
Persec
Zone
Tick Tok
Standard
Standard
Clasic
Per min
Talktime Standard
Core plan
Per sec
Per sec
Corporate Topup
SMART K2 Vodafone Africell Airtel UTL MTN
DATA RATES
The mobile data rates ranges from UGX 249 per day to UGX 3,049,000 per year.
The fixed broadband ranges from UGX 55,000 per month to UGX 3,812,269 per
month.
POSTAL AND COURIER SERVICES

During the period under review, the number of domestic ordinary letter posted
dropped from 693,453 to 500,091, representing a 28% drop. Domestic registered
letters post dropped from 17,530 to 10,367 resulting to a 40.9% drop. The
Domestic Expedited Mail Service numbers grew by 4.2% from 143,207 to
149,267.
Figure. 13. Postal Services

Domestic Ordinary Letter posted Domestic Registered letter posted Domestic EMS
1,425,099 1,388,419
1,080,945
997,399
881,028
693,453
500,091
230,998 197,630
173,236 181,455 143,207 149,267
106,707
36,456 23,412 20,130 14,348 17,319 17,530 10,367
2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16
INTERNATIONAL POSTAL TRAFFICS

The number of incoming European letters was highest (278,869), compared to the
outgoing ones (121,803). The number of letters coming into Uganda from the East
African states was higher (36,627) than those posted from Uganda to rest of the
EA region (17,349).
Figure 14: International Postal Traffic, 2014/15 and 2015/2016

2014/15 2015/16
278,869
238,460
185,137
121,803
119,249
103,647
86,149
82,554
70,855
43,815
40,867
36,627
31,652
31,512
23,894
22,775
17,349
14,540
6,444
4,014
IN OUT IN OUT IN OUT IN OUT IN OUT
E A S T A F R I CAN E U R O P E A N L ET T E R REST OF A FRI C A A M E R I CA L E T T E R REST OF WORL D
L ETTER P OST P OST L ETTER P OST P OST L ETTER P OST
POSTAL AND COURIER SERVICE PROVIDERS

The number of service providers in the postal subsector remained unchanged for
the period under review.
Table 5. Showing number of postal and currier service providers in the

Country
Service June June June June June June June June

providers 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2015
M ajor postal 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
International 6 7 8 8 8 8 8 8
currier
Regional 8 8 8 6 7 7 5 5
currier
Domestic 8 14 14 13 13 13 11 11
currier
BROADCASTING SERVICES

The broadcasting industry is pivotal in the mobilization of the public for the
socio-economic development of most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. This it
does through educational, informational and entertainment programmes.
For Uganda, broadcasting is the main channel for the implementation of the
National Development Plan and Vision that envisages having “A transformed
Ugandan society from a peasant to a modern and prosperous country
within 30 years” as indicated in the Uganda Vision 2040 plan.
As an essential facilitator of this broader plan, the broadcasting enables the

dissemination of information about services aimed at addressing the needs of the
poor, vulnerable and marginalized groups in society. In addition, broadcasting is
responsible for keeping the nation informed of the national and the international
events. It also aims to promote the delivery of high quality and efficient
broadcasting services by both public and private service providers.
In this subsector, the number of service providers remained unchanged for the
review period except for the case of analogue TV stations which were all switched
off by June 2016.
Table 6. Number of Operational TV and FM radios
Service June June June June June June

stations 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Operational 54 60 68 67 28 N/A
analogue TV
stations
Non- 14 10 10 4 2 N/A
operational
analogue TV
stations

Service June June June June June June
stations 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Operational 3 3 3 3 3
Digital
Terrestrial
TV stations
Operational 1 1 2 2 2 2
Digital
Satellite TV
stations
Operational 229 250 251 257 292 292
FM radio
stations
Non 48 36 35 40 12 12
Operational
FM radio
stations
DIGITAL TV TARIFFS
The digital TV tariffs ranges from UGX 5,000 to UGX 334,000 per month. Again
for more information on digital tariffs in Uganda, please check www.kompare.ug
and www.price-check.co.ug
OTHER DEVELOPMENT IN THE BROADCASTING SUBSECTOR

In a bid to set standards, monitor and enforce compliance relating to content as
one of the Commission‟s mandate, the Commission has set local content quotas
on Ugandan television broadcasting stations with the objective of promoting
national culture, pluralism and diversity and to enhance the employment
capacity, identity of the nationals as well as developing the local film and radio
industry.

In accordance with the National Broadcasting Policy, local content is defined as
“content that recognizes the cultural and linguistic diversity of Uganda carrying
themes of relevance to the local audience and produced under Ugandan‟s creative
control”.
UCC has identified the genres of drama, documentary, sports and children‟s
entertainment as needing special attention, and it set a 70% local content quota
with special attention on drama (50%), documentary (10%), and sports (5%) and
children (5%) each.
Figure 15; Pie- chart showing the recommended local content quotas per
genre
Local Children
Program Local Sport Program
5% 5%
Local documentery
10%
Local drama
50%
Other foreign
content
30%

Table 7. Compliance to the Local Content Quotas.
STATION 2014 2015
NBS 25.0% 44.3%
Top TV 18.3% 33.7%
UBC 15.6% 46.5%
NTV 12.4% 40.3%
Star TV 12.3% 42.4%
Bukedde 1 12.1% 42.7%
Urban TV 7.5% 28.5%
Bukedde 2 5.9%
W BS 5.2% 35.8%
TV Africa 4.5% 24.8%
Citizen TV 1.3% 0.0%
Record TV 1.0% 26.2%
Channel 44 0.4% 19.0%
LTV 0.3% 8.3%
East Africa TV 0.0% 2.0%
ITV 0.0% 0.0%
THE DIGITAL M IGRATION

Uganda has fully migrated from Analogue to Digital Migration as of June 2016.

Analogue to Digital Migration is the process in which broadcasting services
offered on the traditional analog technology are replaced with digital based
networks over a specific period. The transition or switch from analog television
to digital television is referred to as the Digital Migration. The Analogue to
Digital Migration arose out of the Regional Radio-communications Conference
of 2006 (RRC06) and the subsequent Geneva 2006 Agreement (GE06) of the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU) „Recommendations‟ of which
Uganda is a party and signatory.
M OBILE M ONEY (M M)
Ugandan mobile operator Smart Telecom has become the country‟s fifth mobile
money provider following the launch of its new Smart Pesa service. Smart
joins MTN, Airtel, Uganda Telecom Ltd (UTL) and Africell in the mobile money
sector, which served some 19.6 million customers at the end of June 2016
according to figures from the Bank of Uganda.
Two other mobile money services are:
Poketi: Which is a Mobile Platform Access (MPA) – USSD based application that
eliminates „borders‟ between Telecom companies to enable its clients to
conveniently buy airtime, send and receive money across different networks in
Africa as well as pay for goods and services.
EZEE Money: This is a multi-national company offering Electronic Money

services to all Ugandans with or without a mobile phone, with or without any
formal bank accounts wishing to receive and make multiple payments in an easy
to use, reliable, secure and affordable manner. Through this service one can pay
bills, do money transfers and other e-money services to banks, non-bank
corporations, government and NGOs
M obile M oney Services uptake in the Sector

Mobile money services is one of many value-added services that since gained a
significant foothold in the communications sector. Since its introduction more
than six years ago, mobile money services have grown to the extent that the ratio
of mobile money subscribers to mobile subscribers is almost approaching 1:1.
For the review period, the number of mobile money subscribers grew by 0.7%,
resulting into 142,835 new mobile money subscribers. On the other hand, the
number of mobile SIMs subscribers grew by 0.6% bringing on board 123,889 new
mobile subscribers. The drop in the growth rate of the mobile money subscribers
is partly attributed to the fact that the number of mobile money subscribers is
almost equalizing the number of mobile subscribers.
Figure 16. Comparison of mobile phones and M obile M oney Subscribers’

Statistics
25,000,000
21,910,948 22,034,837
19,244,020 19,490,935 19,633,770
20,000,000 17,644,162
16,665,310
15,535,989
0.6%
15,000,000
12,117,821
0.7%
10,000,000
5,662,871
5,000,000
-
2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/2015 2015/2016
No of mobile subscribers Mobile Money Registered subscribers
Number and Value of transactions
The graph below shows a respective upward shift of 10.3% and 6.2% for both
number and value of transactions.

Figure. 17. Number of transactions and value of transactions this year
600,000
Number and Value of Transactions 30000
Value of transaction
500,000 25000
400,000 20000
transaction
Number of
300,000 15000
200,000 10000
100,000 5000
- 0
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Jun-16
No of transactions'000 2,840 28,820 87,500 241,727 207,098 496,269 384,775 424,279
Value of transactions (billions) 132.6 962.7 3,753 11,662.8 18,982.5 24,053.9 18,147.2 19,268.3
CONSUM ER AFFAIRS
The Uganda Communications Commission is mandated to protect interests of
consumers in the Communications sector. Monitoring the efficacy of the
consumer complaints handling systems of service providers is critical to the
Commission‟s fulfillment of its consumer protection mandate.
It should be noted that the UCC only handles second level consumers
complaints, and as such requires to first seek redress and or remedy from service
providers. If dissatisfied with the service provider‟s remedial actions or solutions,
consumers can then can lodge their complaint with UCC. The data in Figure 21,
capture these second level consumer complaints that are brought to the UCC.
The figures may, however, include some first level complaints to UCC by
consumers who claim inability to access the service providers.

In the period under review, a total of 160 complaints were received, a decline of
45% from 291 received in 2014/15 financial year. Ranked in descending order,
the highest number of complaints received by UCC were related to mobile money
services. This is followed by complaints about billings, broadcasting and quality
of service related issues.
With regards to the modes or channels through which complaints were submitted
during the period of review, 41.9% of the complaints were received through e-
mail, 35.6% of the complaints were received through phone calls,
13.1% of the complaints were received through walk - in, 7.5% of the complaints
were received through letters, and 1.3% of the complaints were received through
Facebook.
While the remaining 0.6% complaints were received through post/courier.
Figure. 18. Nature of complaints handled
CUSTOMER CARE 1
1
AIRTIME LOADING 1
1
VALUE ADDED SERVICES 1
1
DIGITAL MIGRATION 1
1
CALLER TUNE 4
4
COUNTERFEIT PHONES 5
6
SIM CARD REGISTRATION 8
9
OTHERS 9
10
FRAUD 11
11
UNSOLICITED MESSAGES 12
12
INTERNET /DATA 13
15
QUALITY OF SERVICE RELATED ISSUES 16
16
BROADCASTING 23
23
BILLING 22
24
MOBILE MONEY SERVICES 25
26
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
RESOLVED RECEIVED
CONCLUSION
For the financial year under review, there had been a positive growth in mobile
telephony. This growth can be attributed to market entry by MVNO‟s and

expansion of mobile network infrastructure by the service providers. It is
important to note that all parts of Uganda as a country is covered by a mobile
network though with some intermittent due to the geographical landscape. The
increase can partly be attributed to demand for Mobile money services and
increased demand for other mobile Value Added Services like mobile
information services and mobile transaction services. The mobile network is
expected to expand further during the next financial year following the pattern
taken by the Mobile operators to invest in the development of such mobile
services in order to grow their revenues.
The Internet segment has continued to grow over a period of time now. The
expansion of 3G and 4G coupled with availability of affordable internet enabled
mobile phones has boosted the growth the internet market. Furthermore,
internet penetration is expected to increase in the next financial year as a
result of the free Wi-Fi access project launched within the perimeter of
Kampala. Following the recent declaration by UN of Internet being a human
right, Ugandan Government through the National Information & Technology
Authority-Uganda (NITA-U) decides to avail all citizens living within the borders
of Kampala with free Wi-Fi effective October, 2016.

Sotir 2014

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Postal, Broadcasting and Telecommunications

Annual Market & Industry Report 2015/16.

1 |ANNUAL MARKET REPORT 2015/2016 FINANCIAL YEAR

2 |ANNUAL MARKET REPORT 2015/2016 FINANCIAL YEAR

3 |ANNUAL MARKET REPORT 2015/2016 FINANCIAL YEAR

EM S Expedited Mail Services

GDP Gross Domestic Product

ICT Information Communication Technology

UCC Uganda Communications Commission

4 |ANNUAL MARKET REPORT 2015/2016 FINANCIAL YEAR

The information presented in this report is a reflection of the sector performance

1. National Economic Outlook

As a result of the significant impact of communications services in business,

5 |ANNUAL MARKET REPORT 2015/2016 FINANCIAL YEAR

6 |ANNUAL MARKET REPORT 2015/2016 FINANCIAL YEAR

This increase is a positive development in terms of revenues realized from

INTERNET SUBSCRIPTION AND USE

POSTAL AND COURIER SERVICES

INTERNATIONAL POSTAL TRAFFICS

7 |ANNUAL MARKET REPORT 2015/2016 FINANCIAL YEAR

POSTAL AND COURIER SERVICE PROVIDERS

THE DIGITAL M IGRATION

Analogue to Digital Migration is the process in which broadcasting services offered

The Analogue to Digital Migration arose out of the Regional Radio-communications

8 |ANNUAL MARKET REPORT 2015/2016 FINANCIAL YEAR

While the remaining 0.6% complaints were received through post/courier.

ECONOM IC OUTLOOK IN COM MUNICATIONS PERSPECTIVE

There are macroeconomic indicators that influence the uptake of communications

A comparative analysis of the Uganda population growth rates and teledensity

9 |ANNUAL MARKET REPORT 2015/2016 FINANCIAL YEAR

2013/14 2014/15 2015/16

Teledensity growth rate Population growth rate

[Source: UCC and UBOS]

UGANDA’S GDP TREND AND TELEDENSITY

10 |ANNUAL MARKET REPORT 2015/2016 FINANCIAL YEAR

Data source: UCC/UBOS

TELEDENSITY AND POPULATION GROW TH RATES

11 |ANNUAL MARKET REPORT 2015/2016 FINANCIAL YEAR

Teledensity Teledensity growth rate Population growth rate

6.0 6.1 8.0

RWANDA UGANDA KENYA TANZANIA

Data source: Country Website

INFLATION AS AN ECONOM IC DEFLATOR

12 |ANNUAL MARKET REPORT 2015/2016 FINANCIAL YEAR

Data source: Country Statistics reports

THE TREND IN FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATES IN UGX PER USD

Furthermore, since the exchange rate is a proxy of a country's competitiveness in

13 |ANNUAL MARKET REPORT 2015/2016 FINANCIAL YEAR

3,500.00 RATE, 3,367.99

Data source: Bank of Uganda

ICT DEVELOPMENT-THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

14 |ANNUAL MARKET REPORT 2015/2016 FINANCIAL YEAR

M obile broadband growth slowing

Figure 6. M obile network coverage and evolving technologies

Fixed broadband growth strongest in developed countries

Global fixed-broadband subscriptions are expected to reach around 12 per 100

ICT prices continue to fall

Mobile-broadband services have now become more affordable than fixed-

Digital divide means half the world is still offline

Global online gender gap widens

16 |ANNUAL MARKET REPORT 2015/2016 FINANCIAL YEAR

THE NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Table 1. Number of licensed service providers in the country, June 2016.