The latest telecommunication report from the regulator UCC indicates that there is a 3% growth in total Fixed and mobile subscriptions, growing from 25.7 million active subscriptions in September 2019 to 26.7 million at the end of December 2019.
The growth in Subscriptions translates into a penetration of 66 Lines per 100 from a penetration of 63.7 Lines per 100 at the end of September 2019. There has been a total of 1.9 million new additions in the last 4 quarters.97% of Total Subscriptions remain Mobile, while 3% are fixed.
The growth in cellular subscriptions is driven by new investment in both core and radio network coverage. By December 2019 2G sites stood at 4,810, 3G sites stood at 4,187 and 4G sites stood at 2,593. These were served by a network of 19,609 km of terrestrial backhaul fibre.
The highlight of the quarter was ATC’s acquisition of Eaton Holdings LTD Uganda. The transaction, that received both local and regional regulatory approval by the Commission and COMESA, effectively brought together the local operations of Eaton and ATC in Uganda. The ATC portfolio includes a network of 2,943 passive cell sites, translating into more than 85% of total passive cell site infrastructure in the country.
UTL maintains a market share of 10% of passive cell site infrastructure and remains the only mobile network operator running primarily on built-to-own towers. At the end of December 2019 the total passive cell site footprint in the country stood at 3,334.
Mobile subscriptions Vs Traffic
Growth in mobile subscriptions has translated into 9% growth in total domestic monthly traffic between October – December 2019.
Consistent with previous traffic distribution, on net traffic accounts for 98% of total domestic traffic with off net domestic traffic only accounting for 2%. The dominance of on net traffic is a reflection of the current on net – off net pricing differential and the dominance of on-net price bundles.
Many of the carriers have improved on-net price bundles offering an average of 300 minutes for Ugx.10,000 effectively pricing an on-net minute at less than Ugx.35 while an off-net minute remains at Ugx.240. Examples of comparable on-net bundles and pricing can be seen in the tables below:
The industry has averaged 4.29 billion on net minutes per month during the quarter, with an on-net traffic peak in December of 4.5 billion minutes. This translates into an average of 164 on-net minutes per month per subscriber during 4Q19.
The industry has averaged 61.07 million off net minutes per month during the quarter, with an off-net traffic peak in December of 68.4 million minutes. This translates into an average of 2.32 off-net minutes per month per subscriber during 4Q19.
International traffic
Total international outgoing traffic grew from 74.6 million minutes in 3Q19 to 80.2 million minutes in 4Q19. This represents a 8% growth in total quarterly international outgoing traffic. International outgoing traffic remains largely destined to the Northern Corridor partner states of Kenya, Rwanda and South Sudan, with which Uganda has special international traffic termination arrangements ( through the ONA framework.)
Total international incoming traffic grew from 103.7 million minutes in 3Q19 to 110.9 million minutes in 4Q19. This represents 8% growth in total quarterly international incoming traffic.
11January 2020UCC – Market Performance ReportTotal international incoming traffic grew from 103.7 million minutes in 3Q19 to 110.9 million minutes in 4Q19. This represents 8% growth in total quarterly international incoming traffic. International incoming traffic largely originates from the Northern Corridor partner states of Kenya, Rwanda and South Sudan, with which Uganda has special international traffic termination arrangements (through the ONA framework).
Roaming
The total outbound roaming customers (Ugandans roaming in foreign networks/abroad) grew from 1.98 million in the quarter of July – September to 2.07 million in the quarter October – December 2019, translating into 5% quarter-on-quarter growth.
The total inbound roaming customers (foreigners roaming on domestic networks) grew from 2.36 million in the quarter of July – September to 2.63 million in the quarter October – December 2019, translating into 11% quarter-on-quarter growth.
To date, domestic Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) have roaming agreements in more than 180 countries across the world.
