NETWORK POLICY
In Uganda, the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology is the governmental organization that is responsible for the growth and development of the information technology and communications sector. ICT drafts and regulates policies for the network and communication enhancement in the country to meet its Vision 2040 strategic goal. The aim is to make Uganda as one of the global competitors in the area of technology and thus improve the life of the living.
The ICT developed a Broadcasting Policy in 2005, an Information Management Services Policy in the year 2011, and telecommunications Policy which is currently being reviewed.
Telecommunications: Stage 3
Under the telecommunication policy, it is the government view to ensure equitable and affordable access to the telecommunications for all the people of Uganda through an enabled and competitive private sector. The key objective of this policy to implement through Public Private Partnership to facilitate universal access available at low cost and good quality of service.
The main objective of the telecommunication policy is to create a conducive environment for the establishment of a fully liberalized, neutral and competitive telecommunication sector, to promote value added service, access to information and services to all income groups of the society. The strategy of this policy is to attract additional investment in the sector, promote a pricing tariff that incorporates fair interconnection and facilitates for affordable telecommunications services, including special price structure for education and health. To have a conducive environment it is required for the establishment of centralized mechanism to plan, build and manage all the public communications Infrastructure in the coordinated manner. In addition, it aims to provide telecommunication services that supports local languages.
ICT: Stage 3
Emergence of ICT technologies helps in developing new services, make existing operations more efficient and open up new markets. ICT has some of the strategies that are lined up under its plan. They are to scale up the National Backbone Infrastructure to simply the mode and service delivery to the public, to optimize the connectivity to the undersea fiber optic cables on the east coast of Africa, encourage private sector participation in the IT infrastructure development, encourage Internet Service Providers to provide network access to the remote locations and at the same time establish a country-wide network riding on the ongoing National Transmission Backbone Infrastructure development project.
ICT is now planning to invite the private sectors to involve and develop policies, strategic plans and implementation of programs in the sector. It is also seeking support the development of local capacity for the manufacturing of the ICT products, creating software applications as well as innovative services for local and export market.
The national standards and regulations pertaining to the ICT sector is currently in place and being implemented which aims to provide technical guidance to both public and private sectors and also monitor compliance to the standards.
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