The agreement covers the installation of 800 km of fibre optic in the north-west of the country and was signed in the presence of Bagiire Vincent Waiswa, the Permanent Secretary of the Uganda Ministry of ICT; Godfrey Mutabazi, the director general of the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC); and the partnership agreement was initialled by Kojo Boakye of Facebook; Yonas Maru, CEO of BCS; and Anwar Soussa, CEO of Airtel Uganda.
Several regions like Gulu, Adjumani, Arua, Koboko, Nebbi and Kamdini will be able to access the Internet with this project.
Soussa said that once the project is complete it will provide backhaul connectivity that covers more than 3 million people in Uganda, as well as enable future cross-border connectivity to neighbouring countries.
Soussa further stated, “This will help improve performance and support upgrades to 3G and 4G in areas where operators are bandwidth-constrained. We at Airtel believe that internet is the future and as such have invested heavily to ensure that our customers are part of the future now.”
On the other hand, Mutabazi declared, “ICT is the fastest-growing economic element in Uganda and with appropriate partnerships like the one we are witnessing this morning, we the regulator, are pleased that the under-served rural communities of Uganda are getting access to ICT.”
Source: http://nextvafrica.com/.
