Postal, Broadcasting and Telecommunications Annual Market ... · 2 |ANNUAL MARKET REPORT 2016/2017...

1 |ANNUAL MARKET REPORT 2016/2017 FINANCIAL YEAR

Postal, Broadcasting and Telecommunications

Annual Market & Industry Report 2016/17.

LEGAL DISCALIMER

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 2016 to 30th June 2017 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 ACRONYMS .................................................................................................................................................. 4

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................................ 7

INTERNET SUBSCRIPTION AND USE ................................................................................................................. 8

POSTAL AND COURIER SERVICES ...................................................................................................................... 8

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK IN COMMUNICATIONS PERSPECTIVE ................................................................ 9

UGANDA’S GDP TREND AND TELEDENSITY ................................................................................................... 9

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF TELEDENSITY AND POPULATION GROWTH RATES AMONG

THE EAST AFRICAN COUNTRIES ...................................................................................................................... 10

INFLATION AS AN ECONOMIC DEFLATOR .................................................................................................... 11

TRENDS IN FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATES IN UGX PER USD ................................................................. 12

THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE IN ICT DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................ 13

THE NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE ........................................................................................................................... 18

THE COMMUNICATIONS SECTOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO TAX REVENUE ......................................... 19

SUBSCRIPTION AND PENETRATION ................................................................................................................ 19

MOBILE SUBSCRIPTION ........................................................................................................................................ 19

BANDWIDTH ................................................................................................................................................................ 21

TRAFFIC ........................................................................................................................................................................ 22

INTERNET SUBSCRIPTION AND USE ............................................................................................................... 22

POSTAL AND COURIER SERVICES .................................................................................................................... 23

INTERNATIONAL POSTAL TRAFFICS ............................................................................................................... 24

POSTAL AND COURIER SERVICE PROVIDERS ............................................................................................ 25

BROADCASTING SERVICES .................................................................................................................................. 26

PAY TELEVISION ....................................................................................................................................................... 26

Channels offered ....................................................................................................................................................... 27

DIGITAL TV TARIFFS .............................................................................................................................................. 27

DEVELOPMENT IN THE FILM SUBSECTOR ................................................................................................... 27

MOBILE MONEY (MM) ............................................................................................................................................. 29

CONSUMER AFFAIRS .............................................................................................................................................. 31

CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................................................... 32


LIST OF ACRONYMS CIS Commonwealth of Independent States

EAC East African Community

EMS Expedited Mail Services

FY Financial Year

GDP Gross Domestic Product

ICT Information Communication Technology

UCC Uganda Communications Commission


FORWARD

Colleagues, am pleased to write this forward as UCC celebrates twenty years of

achievement in regulating the sector, Congratulations all who have played a key

role in this long journey.

We are glad to share with our readers, stakeholders, partners and enthusiasts of

the telecommunications sector, the annual 2017 report, it has been a year of

foretold growth and great improvements in the sector aided by the fact that today,

and almost every surface of modern life depends on information and

communication technologies (ICTs). Improved band width, lower voice and data

rates, new technologies, Internet of things (IoT), among others are some of the

issues that drive the sector today. The Communications industry remains of

crucial importance to any country to enhance development initiatives in all spheres

and this comes with good regulatory intervention. Regulatory styles vary

considerably from country to country and from industry to industry, with both

positive and negative effects on innovations. It can include government-imposed

restrictions on licensee’s decisions over prices; quantity and quality of services;

entry and exit. Regulatory interventions are intended to improve the efficiency of

markets in delivering goods and services.

With inclusive regulatory interventions, the Communication industry in Uganda

has become recognized as an essential ingredient in the country’s sustainable

economic growth and development.

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

for the Financial Year 2016/2017 under the following areas:

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


Due to 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 by creating

an enabling and competitive

environment, a clear focus on quality

of service and addressing consumer

concerns.


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The communication sector has

performed well in the review period [1st

July 2016 -30th June 2017] due to a

favorable investment climate in the

sector. A closer look into Uganda’s

tele-density and population growth

rates shows that Uganda is

approaching a telephony population

ratio of 1:1. For the year under review,

Uganda reported the highest year on

year tele-density growth rate

compared with rest of the EAC states.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO TAX REVENUE

Both Exercise and VAT grew by 14.8%

and 17.1% respectively. There was a

2.6% drop in revenue collected from

PAYE. The total sector contribution to

tax revenue grew by 14.3% up from

UGX 457,640 million in FY 2015/16

to UGX 523,121 million in FY

2016/17.

MOBILE SUBSCRIPTION

A total of 1,573,773 new mobile

subscribers were registered; which is

a 7.1% growth in mobile subscription,

and higher than the 0.6%

subscription growth registered in the

previous financial year. The total

mobile phone subscriptions by end of

the financial year stand at 23,608,610

FIXED SUBSCRIPTION

A total of 43,652 growth in fixed

subscription was registered. This is a

12.8% growth and higher than the

0.9% drop in fixed subscription

registered in the previous FY. Total

fixed subscriptions now stand at

384,503.

Tele density

The subscriptions statistics above

resulted into a 2.5% growth in

teledensity, from 61.2% in 2015/16 to

63.9% in the FY 2016/17.


Voice traffic

On-net and off net-traffic

The on-net traffic grew by 20.9%

(4,351,504,291 minutes), compared to

the 27.4% growth experienced in the

previous FY. Off-net traffic dropped by

18.7% (210,267,524), reflecting a

decrease in interconnection compared

to the 1.8% drop registered in the

previous FY. International outgoing

traffic dropped by 2.4% (5,736,671

minutes) and the international

incoming traffic dropped by 5.6%

(24,926,414 minutes) respectively

compared to the 8.3% drop and the

24.4% growth registered in the

previous FY. The drop could partly

be explained by the increased uptake

of OTT services .

INTERNET SUBSCRIPTION AND USE

As estimated, the number of internet

subscribers and internet users

continued to grow respectively by

68.4% and 10.1% resulting in a 45.4%

internet penetration.

POSTAL AND COURIER SERVICES

The postal subsector registered drops

in domestic ordinary letter posted,

drop in domestic registered letters

posted and growth in domestic

Expedited Mail Service. The drops in

this traditional mode of

communication could also be partly

explained by increasing uptake of

digital communications channels.

BROADCASTING SERVICES

Pay Television

Seven (7) Pay Televisions are

operational in the market, two (2) of

which broadcast using terrestrial, four

(4) use satellite and one (1) broadcasts

over cable. Four of the Pay TVs

broadcast country wide.


ECONOMIC OUTLOOK IN COMMUNICATIONS 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 average population

growth rate and the average

Teledensity growth rate shows a faster

growth rate in teledensity (4%) than

that of the population (3%). If this

pace continues Uganda will approach

a telephony population ratio of 1:1.

Figure 1. Trend in Population growth rate, and Tele-density 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).

63.7

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

-

5,000,000

10,000,000

15,000,000

20,000,000

25,000,000

30,000,000

35,000,000

40,000,000

2013 2014 2015 2016 Jun-17

PO

PU

LATI

ON

YEARS

POPULATION TELEDENSITY


For the period under review both

Uganda’s Tele-density as a proxy for

the consumption of communications

services and GDP increased by 1.5%

and 6% respectively.

Figure 2. Relationship between Uganda’s GDP and Tele-density

Data source: UCC/UBOS (http://www.ubos.org/statistics/macro-

economic/annual-gdp/)

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF TELEDENSITY AND POPULATION GROWTH

RATES AMONG THE EAST AFRICAN COUNTRIES Uganda reported the highest tele-

density growth rate of 1.5 followed by

Tanzania (1.0), Rwanda comes third at

(0.9) and Kenya was the lowest (-1.3).

However, in the region, Kenya still has

the highest Tele-density of (88.7).

2008/9 2009/20 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17

Teledensity 31.6 33.5 45.6 46.5 47.7 53.3 63.9 61.2 63.7

GDP (BN) 28,176 33,596 37,412 45,944 61,373 66,764 72,660 81,688 86,555

-

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

80,000

90,000

100,000

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

TELE

DEN

SITY


Figure 3. Tele-density and Population growth rates by country

Data source: Country Website

INFLATION AS AN ECONOMIC DEFLATOR

The inflation rates for all the EAC

states for the review period have been

between 6.4 and 9.4. A closer look at

the patterns shows that from 2014 to

date, Uganda’s inflation rates had

been on the rise. However, the

analysis puts Rwanda again at the

highest rate of (9.4 from 7.2 in the

previous year), followed by Kenya

(9.2), Uganda (6.4) and Tanzania at

(6.1).

Therefore all the EAC states

experienced increased inflation rates

in the period under review as

indicated in figure 4 below.

RWANDA UGANDA KENYA TANZANIA

78.2

63.7

88.7

80

0.9 1.5 -1.3 1.02.4 3.3 2.7 3.1

Teledensity Teledensity growth rate Population growth rate


Figure 4. Inflation patterns in EAC states

Data source: Country Central Banks/NSOs

TRENDS IN FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATES IN UGX PER USD

The Uganda shilling has been

depreciating against US Dollar over

time as shown in Figure 5 below.

During the FY 2016/17 The Uganda

shillings depreciated by approximately

0.2 %, as a result, imports that

constitute a large component of

capital expenditure in the sector, have

become more expensive in both

nominal and real terms. With the

majority of sector revenues

denominated in UGX, the depreciation

of the shilling has negatively impacted

the bottom line of the majority of

service providers therein.

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Jun-17

UGANDA -1.7 2.4 7.3 6.4 14.6 9.5 5 24.1 4.7 2.9 4.9 5.9 6.4

KENYA 4.9 7.8 5.6 13.2 9.7 2.2 13.5 6.8 6.6 6.9 6.6 6.4 9.2

TANZANIA 6.4 5.3 9 10.1 7.4 6.9 9.2 11.4 11.2 6.1 4.7 4.8 6.1

RWANDA 9.5 9.8 9.8 13.4 9 4.3 9.1 6.2 5.2 1.3 3.6 7.2 9.4

-5

0

5

10

15

20

25

30In

flat

ion

rat

es


Figure 5. Trends in Exchange rates

Data source: Bank of Uganda

THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE IN ICT DEVELOPMENT

Source: http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/facts/ICTFactsFigures2017.pdf

This year 2017 marks the 25th

anniversary of the ITU

Telecommunication Development

Sector. ITU latest data show that

young people are at the forefront of

today’s digital economy with 70 per

cent of the world’s youth using the

internet. Today’s ICT development is

driven by the spread of mobile-

broadband services. The growth of

mobile broadband has largely

outpaced that of fixed broadband,

while mobile-broadband prices have

dropped by 50 per cent on average

over the last three years. These factors

have resulted in approximately half of

the world’s population using the

internet and broadband services being

available at much higher speeds.

RATE, 3,528.30

-

500.00

1,000.00

1,500.00

2,000.00

2,500.00

3,000.00

3,500.00

4,000.00

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Exch

ange

Rat

es

http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/facts/ICTFactsFigures2017.pdf


INTERNET ADOPTION

In developed countries, 94% of young

people aged 15-24 use the internet

compared with the 67% in developing

countries; and only 30% in least

Developed Countries (LDCs). Out of

the 830 million young people who are

online, 320 million (39%) are in China

and India. Nearly 9 out of 10 young

individuals not using the Internet live

in Africa; Asia and the Pacific.

Proportion of young people using the internet

Young people (15-24 years) represent

almost one fourth of the total number

of individuals using the internet

worldwide. In LDCs, 35% of the

individuals using the internet are

young people aged 15-24, compared to

13% in developed countries and 23%

globally (ITU Facts and figures 2017).

Proportion of households with Internet access

In developed countries, the proportion

of households with internet access at

home is twice as high as in developing

countries. Only 15% of households in

LDCs have internet access at home. In

these countries, many internet users

are accessing the internet from work,

schools and universities or from other

shared public connections outside

their homes.


Figure 6: Proportions (%) of households with internet access

Source: ITU facts and figures 2017

THE DIGITAL GENDER GAP PERSISTS

The proportion of men using the

Internet is higher than that of women

in two-thirds of countries worldwide.

The proportion of women using the

Internet is 12% lower than that of

men. While the gender gap has

narrowed in most regions since 2013,

it has widened in Africa. In Africa, the

proportion of women using the

internet is 25% lower than that of

men. In LDCs, only one out of seven

women is using the internet compared

with one out of five men. The only

region where the percentage of

internet usage by women exceeds that

of men s the Americas, where

countries also score highly on gender

parity in tertiary education.

84.4 84.2

70.465.3

53.648.1 47.2

42.9

1814.7

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Developed Europe CIS TheAmericas

World Asia &Specific

Arab States Developing Africa LDCs


Figure 7: Internet penetration rate (%) for men and women

Source: ITU facts and figures 2017

BROADBAND IS INCREASINGLY MOBILE

Mobile broadband subscriptions have

grown by more than 20% annually in

the last five years and are expected to

reach 4.3 billion globally by end 2017.

Despite the high growth rates in

developing countries and in LDCs,

there are twice as many mobile-

broadband subscriptions per 100

inhabitants in developed countries as

in developing countries, and four

times as many in developed countries

as in LDCs.

FIXED BROADBAND

The global number of fixed-broadband

subscriptions has increased by 9%

annually in the last five years and 330

million new fixed-broadband

subscriptions have been added.

Higher growth will be needed to bridge

the divide between developed and

developing countries. There are 31

fixed broadband subscriptions per

100 inhabitants in developed

countries against 9 in developing

countries. Fixed-broadband uptake

82

.9

82

.2

69

.8

65

.1

50

.9

47

.9

47

.7

44

.7

24

.9

21

76

.3

79

.9

65

.8

66

.7

44

.9

39

.4

39

.4

37

.5

18

.6

14

.1

MALE FEMALE


remains very limited in LDCs, with

only 1 subscription per 100

inhabitants

MOBILE BROADBAND IS MORE AFFORDABLE THAN FIXED BROADBAND

Mobile-broadband prices as a

percentage of GNI per capita halved

between 2013 and 2016 worldwide.

The steepest decrease occurred in

LDCs, where prices fell from 32.4% to

14.1% of GNI per capita.

Figure 8: Mobile broadband prices as a percentage of GNI per capita

Mobile broadband is more affordable

than fixed-broadband services in most

developing countries though it

represents more than 5% of GNI per

capita. In LDCs, the average entry-

level fixed-broadband subscription is

2.6 times more expensive than an

entry-level mobile-broadband

subscription.


THE NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

The Uganda Communications

Commission has since its

establishment licensed

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 2017.

Category Licensed

Postal & Courier

National Postal Operator 1

Regional Courier Operators 4

Domestic Courier Operators 7

International Courier Operators 8

Telcos

Capacity Resale only 1

National Telecom Operators (NTO) 2

PSP & PIP 2

PSP & Capacity Resale 6

Public Infrastructure Providers (PIP only) 21

Public Service Provider (PSP only) - Voice & Data 24

Broadcasting

Digital Terrestrial 2

Cable TV stations 3

Digital satellite stations 4

Digital TV stations 5

FTA service providers 31

Operational FM Radio stations 275


THE COMMUNICATIONS SECTOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO TAX REVENUE

Both Exercise and VAT grew by 14.8%

and 17.1% respectively. There was a

2.6% drop in revenue collected from

PAYE. Therefore the total sector

contribution to tax revenue grew by

14.3% (UGX 457,640 million in FY

2015/16 to UGX 523,121 million in

FY 2016/17).

Figure 9. Tax revenue in millions

SUBSCRIPTION AND PENETRATION

MOBILE SUBSCRIPTION

A total of 1,573,773 new mobile

subscribers were registered in the FY

ending June 2017. This is a 7.1%

growth in mobile subscription, and

higher than the 0.6% subscription

growth registered in the previous period

(July 2015 to June 2016). Total mobile

phone subscriptions as of June 17 were

23,608,610.

2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17

Excise 88,775 98,001 100,750 113,319 154,869 170,431 291,907 238,735 274,075

VAT 54,628 94,278 68,245 98,330 134,723 129,663 152,209 181,944 213,063

PAYE 12,176 22,562 30,643 33,252 43,138 43,659 40,305 36,961 35,983

Total 155,579 214,841 199,638 244,901 332,730 343,753 484,421 457,640 523,121

-

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

- 50,000

100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000 300,000 350,000

REV

ENU

E IN

MIL

LIO

NS


FIXED SUBSCRIPTION

A total of 43,652 growth in fixed

subscription were registered in the FY

2016/17. This is a 12.8% growth and

higher than the 0.9% drop in fixed

subscription registered in the previous FY.

Total fixed subscriptions stand at 384,503

as of end reporting period.

Tele density

The above subscriptions statistics resulted in a 2.5% growth in tele density, from 61.2%

in 2015/16 to 63.9% in FY 2016/17.

Table 2. Fixed, Mobile and Total Subscription

Fixed and

Mobile

Subscriptions

2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/2015 2015/16 2016/17

Fixed 330,989 207,474 262,530 375,689 340,851 384,503

Mobile 15,535,989 16,665,310 19,244,020 21,910,948 22,034,837 23,608,610

Total 15,866,978 16,872,784 19,506,550 22,286,637 22,375,688 23,993,113


Figure 10. Total Subscription and Teledensity

BANDWIDTH

The sector has continued to register

growth in bandwidth. A 47.7% growth

was registered resulting into a total

bandwidth of 61,585.6mbps up from

41,695.3mbps realized in the previous

year.

Figure 11. Total bandwidth and bandwidth per million inhabitants

0

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20

30

40

50

60

70

-

5,000,000

10,000,000

15,000,000

20,000,000

25,000,000

30,000,000

2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17

TOTA

L SU

BSC

RIP

TIO

N

FINANCIAL YEARS

Subscription Teledensity

2009/10

2010/11

2011/12

2012/13

2013/14

2014/15

2015/16

Jun-17

Total Bandwidth 5,145.70 15,739.2022,664.4525,678.8226,986.0531,222.75 41,695.3 61,585.6

Bandwidth per 1,000,000 inhabitants 161.89 477.82 664.04 726.27 737.01 895.74 1,139.4 1,634.7

-

200.00

400.00

600.00

800.00

1,000.00

1,200.00

1,400.00

1,600.00

1,800.00

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30,000.00

40,000.00

50,000.00

60,000.00

70,000.00

Tota

l Ban

dw

idth


TRAFFIC

Voice traffic

On-net and off net-traffic

The on net traffic grew by 20.9%

(4,351,504,291 minutes), compared to

the 27.4% growth experienced in

2015/16 financial year. Off-net traffic

dropped by 18.7% (-210,267,524),

reflecting a decrease in

interconnection compared to the 1.8%

drop registered in the previous FY.

International outgoing traffic dropped

by 2.4% (5,736,671 minutes) and

international incoming traffic dropped

by 5.6% (-24,926,414 minutes). In the

previous quarter, international

outgoing traffic dropped by 8.3% and

the international incoming traffic grew

by 24.4%.

Figure 12: Traffic trend

INTERNET SUBSCRIPTION AND USE

As estimated, the number of internet

subscribers and internet users

continued to grow as illustrated

below. The number of internet

subscribers and users grew

respectively by 68.4% and 10.1%

resulting in a 45.4% internet

penetration as of June 2017.

Table 3. Traffic trend since 2008/9 (in Minutes)Level of Usage (tele-trafic) 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2015/16 2016/17

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 25,178,414,896

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 1,126,041,413 915,773,889

International Outgoing 147,328,246 107,229,800 173,375,156 227,838,466 265,611,641 259,516,953 237,892,159 232,155,488

International incoming 398,551,096 460,067,065 425,731,507 356,898,115 443,889,009 418,962,595


Figure 13. Estimated internet subscription and estimated internet users.

(Est) means estimated

TARIFFS

All the operators are operating different tariff plans, and the comparative rates are

available on www.price-check.co.ug and www.kompare.ug which are online

resources for evaluation and comparison of different tariff plans for both voice and

Data. These two price comparator service providers are UCC approved.

POSTAL AND COURIER SERVICES

The number of domestic ordinary

letters posted changed from 500,091

to 214,428 representing a 57% drop.

Domestic registered letters posted

changed from 10,367 to 5,941

resulting to a 42% drop. The Domestic

expedited mail Service numbers grew

by 15% from 149,267 to 171,772.

13,551,142

17,102,456

-

2,000,000

4,000,000

6,000,000

8,000,000

10,000,000

12,000,000

14,000,000

16,000,000

18,000,000

Jun

-09

Oct

-09

Feb

-10

Jun

-10

Oct

-10

Feb

-11

Jun

-11

Oct

-11

Feb

-12

Jun

-12

Oct

-12

Feb

-13

Jun

-13

Oct

-13

Feb

-14

Jun

-14

Oct

-14

Feb

-15

Jun

-15

Oct

-15

Feb

-16

Jun

-16

Oct

-16

Feb

-17

Jun

-17

Sub

scri

pti

on

/Use

rs

TIME

Subscriptions (Est) Users (Est)

http://www.price-check.co.ug/

http://www.kompare.ug/


Figure. 14. Postal Services

INTERNATIONAL POSTAL TRAFFICS

The data shows that incoming letter

traffic is higher than the outgoing

letter traffic for all categories. For the

incoming category, the highest traffic

was realized from European Countries

(99,343), followed by the Americas

(36,163), third was the rest of the

world and the least from East Africa.

The same trend can be observed in the

outgoing postal traffic. In general, the

postal traffic is in a downward trend

based on data for the last three years.

1,080,945

1,425,099 1,388,419

997,399

881,028

693,453

500,091

214,428

36,456 23,412 20,130 14,348 17,319 17,530 10,367 5,941

106,707

230,998 173,236 197,630 181,455

143,207 149,267 171,772

-

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

1,400,000

1,600,000

2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17Domestic Ordinary Letter posted Domestic Registered letter posted Domestic EMS


Figure 14: International Postal Traffic, 2015/16 and 2016/2017

Table 3. Showing postal traffic data for the last three years.

Letter Post Traffic IN/OUT 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17

East African Letter post In 31,652 36,627 22,507

Out 14,540 17,349 3,159

European Letter post In 238,460 278,869 99,343

Out 103,647 121,803 71,222

Rest of Africa Letter Post In 23,894 31,512 11,659

Out 4,014 6,444 3,602

America Letter Post In 86,149 119,249 36,163

Out 70,855 43,815 28,134

Rest of World Letter Post In 82,554 185,137 29,457

Out 40,867 22,775 9,024

POSTAL AND COURIER SERVICE PROVIDERS

The number of major postal and

international courier service providers

remained unchanged. However, the

number of regional couriers and

domestic couriers reduced by 1 and 4

respectively.

36

,62

7

17

,34

9

27

8,8

69

12

1,8

03

31

,51

2

6,4

44

11

9,2

49

43

,81

5

18

5,1

37

22

,77

5

22

,50

7

3,1

59

99

,34

3

71

,22

2

11

,65

9

3,6

02

36

,16

3

28

,13

4

29

,45

7

9,0

24

I N O U T I N O U T I N O U T I N O U T I N O U T

E A S T A F R I C A N L E T T E R P O S T

E U R O P E A N L E T T E R P O S T

R E S T O F A F R I C A L E T T E R P O S T

A M E R I C A L E T T E R P O S T

R E S T O F W O R L D L E T T E R P O S T

TRA

FFIC

LETTER POST

2015/16 2016/17


Table 4. Showing number of postal and currier service providers in the

Country

BROADCASTING SERVICES

This sub-sector encompasses broadcasting in radio and television services.

Table 5. Number of Operational TV and FM radios

Service stations Jun-

11 Jun-

12 Jun-

13 Jun-

14 Jun-

15 Jun-

16 Jun-17

Operational Digital

Terrestrial TV stations

3 3 3 3 3 2

Operational Digital Satellite TV stations

1 1 2 2 2 2 4

Cable TVs 1

Operational Digital

Terrestrial Free to Air TVs

30

Operational FM radio stations

229 250 251 257 292 292 275

PAY TELEVISION

Seven (7) pay televisions are operational in the market, two (2) of which broadcast

using terrestrial, four (4) use satellite and one (1) broadcasts over cable. Four pay

TVs broadcast country wide. Table 6 below lists the Pay TV companies and their

areas of coverage.

Service providers Jun-09 Jun-10 Jun-11 Jun-12 Jun-13 Jun-14 Jun-15 Jun-16 Jun-17

Major postal 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

International currier 6 7 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

Regional currier 8 8 8 6 7 7 5 5 4

Domestic currier 8 14 14 13 13 13 11 11 7


Table 6. Pay TVs, Mode of broadcasting and Geographical coverage

No. Station Name Mode of

Broadcasting

Transmitter locations giving

60km radius of Coverage from each location

1. CITI CABLE Cable Internet Kampala and Jinja

2. GOtv Terrestrial Kampala, Jinja, Iganga, Mbarara, Kasese Masaka, Mbale, Lira, Gulu,

Arua, Entebbe

3. STARTIMES Terrestrial Jinja, Kampala, Luwero, Masaka,

Mbale, Mbarara, Nakasongola, Entebbe, Fort portal, Gulu, Ssesse Island

4. DStv Satellite Countrywide

5. AZAM TV Satellite Countrywide

6. STARTIMES Satellite Countrywide

7. ZUKU TV Satellite Countrywide

Channels offered

The lowest number of channels offered per service provider is 46 and the highest

number of channels per service provider stands at 145.

DIGITAL TV TARIFFS

The digital TV bouquet price ranges from UGX 8,000 to UGX 287,250 per month.

For more information on digital tariffs in Uganda, please check www.kompare.ug

and www.price-check.co.ug

DEVELOPMENT IN THE FILM SUBSECTOR

The Uganda Communications

Commission hosted the fifth edition of

Uganda Film Festival (UFF) from 28th

August to 1st September 2017 under

the theme “Promoting Culture

through Film.” The UFF initiative

was established in 2013 to create a

platform that fosters the development

http://www.kompare.ug/

http://www.price-check.co.ug/


of Uganda audio- visual industry and

help the industry achieve its full

potential of creating employment,

promoting local content and preserve

our national culture and pluralism by

story -telling the Ugandan ways of life

through film. It focused on promoting

and popularizing the Uganda Film &

Video industry, building capacity,

natural heritage, tourism and creating

business linkages.

The festival is an annual event which

includes; Trainings & workshops,

Film exhibition market, Film

Screenings and culminates into an

Awards Gala Ceremony to recognize

the Best local films of the year.

The graph below shows the trend in

the number of quality films submitted.

The declining trend is as a result of

improved quality screening of films

submitted. At the beginning (2013) the

emphasis was more on awareness, as

such even what does not qualify as a

film was accepted and counted as film,

but as time goes, the quality of the film

kept improving as more submissions

get screened off. The film producers

started focusing on quality not

number of film produced with the aim

of winning awards.

Figure 15: Statistics of films submitted by year.

189179

132

113

148

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

TOTAL NUMBER OF FILMS SUBMITTED


MOBILE MONEY (MM)

Ugandan has a total of five (5) mobile

money service providers in the

country with business names as;

Smart Pesa (Smart telecom), Mobile

money (MTN), Airtel money (Airtel), M-

sente (UTL) and Africell money

(Africell).

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.

This is a

multi-national company incorporated

in Uganda in June 2012 to offer

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

Mobile Money Services uptake in the Sector

Mobile money services is one of many

value-added services that has since

gained a significant foothold in the

communications sector. Since its

introduction more than eight 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. The number of mobile money

subscribers grew by 16%, resulting

into 3,259,878 new mobile money

subscribers. On the other hand, the

number of mobile SIMs subscribers

grew by 7% bringing on board

1,573,773 new mobile subscribers.

The growth rate of the mobile money

subscribers is partly attributed to the

fact that almost all new SIM card


subscriptions are made mobile money

enabled at the time of the registration.

Figure 16. Comparison of mobile phones and Mobile Money Subscribers’

Statistics

Number and Value of transactions

The graph below shows a respective

upward shift of 33.5% and 46.4% for

both number and value of

transactions.

Figure. 17. Number of transactions and value of transactions this year

15,535,989

23,608,610

5,662,871

22,893,648

-

5,000,000

10,000,000

15,000,000

20,000,000

25,000,000

2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/2015 2015/2016 2016/2017

No of mobile subscribers Mobile Money Registered subscribers

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Jun-16 Jun-17

No of transactions'000 2,840 28,820 87,500 241,727 207,098 496,269 384,775 424,279 566,565

Value of transactions (billions) 132.6 962.7 3,753 11,662.818,982.524,053.918,147.219,268.3 28,208

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

-

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

Number and Value of TransactionsV

alu

e o

f tr

ansa

ctio

n

Nu

mb

er o

f tr

ansa

ctio

n


CONSUMER AFFAIRS

The UCC is mandated to protect

interests of consumers in the

Communications sector. Monitoring

the efficacy of service providers

consumer complaints handling

systems is critical to the

Commission’s fulfillment of this

mandate.

Consumers are required to first seek

redress and or remedy from their

service providers. If dissatisfied with

the service provider’s remedial actions

or solutions, consumers can then

lodge their complaint with UCC. As

such, UCC only handles complaints at

second level. The data in figure 21

indicates consumer complaints that

were lodged with UCC. The figures

may, however, include some first level

complaints to UCC by consumers who

claim inability to access the service

providers.

A total of 132 complaints were

received, a decline of 17.5% from 160

received in the previous financial year.

The declining trend in reported

complaints implies increased services

satisfaction by the consumers. A total

of 123 complaints (93.2%) were

successfully resolved/closed, 9(6.8%)

were pending at the time of making

this report due to on-going

investigations. Ranked in descending

order, the highest number of

complaints received by UCC were

related to unsolicited messages. This

is followed by complaints about

billings, quality of services and mobile

money service related issues.

With regards to the modes or channels

through which complaints were

submitted during the period of review,

39.6% of the complaints were received

through e-mail, 31.8% of the

complaints were received through

phone calls,

20.8% of the complaints were received

through walk - in, 4.7% of the

complaints were received through

letters, and 3.1% of the complaints

were received through social media.


Figure. 18. Nature of complaints handled

CONCLUSION

For the financial year under review,

there had been yet again a positive

development in the sector as a whole.

The demand for Mobile money

services, increased demand for other

mobile value added services such as

mobile information services and

mobile transaction services partly

contributed to the sector growth. 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 following the expansion of 3G

and 4G; coupled the availability of

affordable internet enabled mobile

phones has boosted the growth of the

internet market.

Internet penetration is expected to

increase in the next financial year as

a result of the free and fair

competition; increased affordable

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Nu

mb

er o

f C

om

pla

ints

Types of Complaints

RECEIVED RESOLVED PENDING


bundle offers; both of which cater for

all categories of the income groups.

The film subsector is steadily gaining

market demand as the quality of

films produced continues to improve

year by year. The complaints from

consumers are constantly reducing

largely due to increased awareness

and customer care interventions by

both the regulator and the service

providers.

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