MTN Uganda has blamed the poor network coverage on the refusal by Ugandans to give up their land for the installation of masts and the stringent process to acquire authorization from Government to install them.
The complaint was made by Wim Vanhelleputte, Chief Executive Officer at MTN Uganda while appearing before Parliament’s Information, Communication and Technology Committee to respond to concerns raised in the petition over the unsatisfactory and unfair service delivery by telecom providers.
“Today the average distance is 200m from each tower. One way to improve quality is build more towers. To get authorization to build more towers is becoming more challenging, there is NEMA, KCCA, Local Governments, Uganda Communications Commission. Everybody wants a perfect network but nobody wants a tower in their garden. So there is a challenge on how to deliver the quality,” Vanhelleputte said.
He cited an example in Gulu where MTN currently has 18 towers but for the Telecom to operate effectively, they require 27 towers, but for the whole of 2021, the company got authorization to build only one tower.
The Telecom operators called for sensitization among masses to educate them of myths that having masts near homes makes them prune to cancer and makes some of them sterile.
In the petition before the Committee, a section of Ugandans complained of poor network coverage characterized by dropped calls, exorbitant cost of internet and mobile money charges among the telecoms.
MTN Uganda however blamed the high cost of internet on the low uptake in Uganda, and proposed to have taxes on smart phones dropped so as to allow increased usage of internet data on their devices.
Vanhelleputte said that the usage of data in Uganda in general as compared to Kenya is low, saying that in Uganda 1 in 3 customers use data, while in Kenya, 2 in 3 people use internet and the low uptake in Uganda is blamed on the high taxes like Value Added Tax and Customs that drive the cost of smart phones.
“It isn’t the data that is expensive, it is the device that you need to consume your data. One thing we believe that could change the dynamics of the industry is look at the cost of smart phones. If someone wants to buy an iPhone at Shs5M, please tax them, they are rich people. They should be taxed,” he explained.
He added: “The rate by which we are selling data to our customers is driven by the cost we incur to deliver that data. As much as the price by the customer cost may be perceived high, it is only a reflection of what we are incurring.”
While commenting on the allegations of charging exorbitant fees on internet, Andrew Rugamba, Head Financial Services at MTN, blamed it on the geographical location of Uganda being landlocked and as such, data capacity is transmitted through other nations to get to the coastal sub-sea cables thus driving the cost high.
Source; BusinessFocus
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