Share capacity with private players, ITU chief tells Uganda

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has advised the Ugandan government to offer capacity of the US$110 million national fiber-optic backbone to the private sector at wholesale rates in order to deliver affordable services to users.

The project has enormous potential to generate even more momentum in the country's ICT sector, according to Hamadoun Toure, ITU secretary general.

The first phase of Uganda's backbone project was completed early this year, interconnecting government institutions and agencies and resulting in a great deal of unused capacity. China's Huawei Technologies is currently undertaking the second phase of the project -- a 2,500 kilometer cable that will deliver high-speed Internet to the rest of Uganda.

Backbone operators serve as wholesale providers, which gives them the incentive to sell as much capacity as possible to as many retail providers as they can, ensuring low-cost delivery to users, Toure said.

"Uganda is ideally poised to embrace such a forward-looking approach," he said. "An open-access policy meshes perfectly with your unrivalled track record as an innovator and your tireless commitment to connecting the unconnected."

He added that the ITU is ready to assist in the development of the necessary framework to support a shared approach to the backbone facility.

The national backbone, which is yet to be officially launched, is intended to reduce spending on public administration, provide basic communication to rural communities and improve service delivery in the fields of health, education and agriculture.

The facility has now made it possible for government ministries, departments and agencies to virtually interface with one other. Plasma television screens and Internet videophones have been installed in boardrooms in order to ease communication across all government functions.

Past reports have indicated that the government will establish a special purpose vehicle and award a contract to a private player to run the network infrastructure.