The approved policies pending enactment into laws are the National Information Technology Policy, e-government Policy Framework, Postal Policy, and Analogue to Digital Migration Policy.
The National Information technology Policy's purpose is to ensure that Uganda is strategically positioned to attract international IT companies through developing suitable IT infrastructure. Postal policy will ensure effective and efficient order in the postal sector while E-governance will see that there is a political will to embrace IT services throughout Uganda.
The analogue to digital migration policy sets the parameters of migrating Uganda's broadcasting sector from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting.According to the 2012 Ministry of ICT status report seen by East African Business Week, the Telecommunications Policy, Broadcasting Policy, eWaste Management Policy and the Information Management Services Policy will be completed in June this year. Others, yet to be developed/reviewed are the ICT Policy and ICT Scarce Resources Management Policy.
The Uganda ICT sector until now has enacted only two laws. The National Information Technology Authority- Uganda Act and the Cyber laws (e-Transactions Act, Computer Misuse Act, and the Electronic Signatures Act).
The status report adds that the attendant regulations are being developed while the Uganda Communications Regulatory Authority Bill (UCRA) was gazetted and is due in parliament late this month. The report indicates that due to the pursuance of competitive policies, the telecommunications sector has continued to record substantial growth both in number of subscribers and variety of services.
"By the end of December 2011, close to 16.5million telephone lines were in use (mainly mobile phones) and the rest of the population could still access basic call services through over 1,000 public payphones erected at different parts of the country," the report shows.
According to the Uganda Communications Commission statistics about one million new subscribers were registered in the financial year of 2010/11, of which over 90% were mobile telephone subscribers. The improvement the report says was largely due to deepening of competition in the sector engendered by the licensing of several new entrants after the review of the telecommunications policy in 2006. "Currently, the number of Frequency Modulation (FM) radio stations and TV stations is over 250 and over 50 respectively."
The report adds that the ICT sector has also registered good progress with growth in number of fixed and mobile broadband internet subscribers.
"By June 2011, the fixed internet subscription had gone up to 84,558 from 31,000 in June 2010, while the mobile broadband connections were estimated at 850,200 connections from 510,000 subscriptions in June 2010. Currently there are over 5million internet users countrywide."
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Paul Tentena
Quelle/Source: AllAfrica, 26.03.2012
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