MTN market share drops as Airtel surges forward

The year 2017 served up quiet some mixed bag for one of Uganda’s biggest domestic revenue contributors – the telecommunication sector. It was in 2017 that the mandatory cut-off of all unregistered SIM cards was implemented, a noble exercise that, regrettably, cost telecoms heavily.

In the same year, and as a result of SIM card registration activities, the country, for the first time in several years, recorded a reduction in the number of active subscribers.

The year was also characterised by several telecom human resource movements at the top level coupled with endless rumours of some of the fragile operators existing the market due to questions regarding profits and surging debt.

But it was a September ham-fisted order that took the day.  The government, through Keith Muhakanizi, the secretary to the Treasury, gave an unprecedented directive to all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to immediately organise to clear any outstanding Uganda Telecom (UTL) debts they had with UTL. In addition, the parties were ordered to exclusively procure and only use UTL’s telephony and internet services.

To date, this unexpected order continues to divide opinion in and outside government. Those that support it believe it will help resurrect the ‘debt-ridden’ UTL while those against it note that UTL has no capacity to serve all MDAs. Also, those against it argue that, if implemented, the directive will be an anti-business move that will give UTL unfair advantage over other players.

However, for telecom customers generally, 2017 was a good year with millions enjoying cheaper voice, data and mobile financial services (MFS) products/services thanks to the cutthroat competition that the industry was and continues to be embroiled in.

Subscribers drop but telecoms fight back

For the first time in the last seven years, the telecom sector registered a slight drop in the number of mobile subscribers. This exposé was contained in the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) Industry report, released in November 2017, covering the period between March and June of the same year.

“Telecom sector posted a drop in mobile subscribers between March and June 2017. As of end of June, total subscribers stood at 23,608,610 from 23,665,556 at end of March.  This represented a 56,946 drop in mobile subscribers due to abandonment of SIM Cards by users as a result of the verification/validation exercise,