The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) was established under Section 4 of the Uganda Communications Act 2013 to regulate the communications sector in Uganda. With the recent increase in data usage, there is doubt that users would appreciate an internet broadband coverage map of Uganda from the regulator.
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As part of the Commission’s effort to promote the interests of consumers and operators in regard to the quality of communications services and equipment, the Commission has recently developed a monitoring tool on the Quality of Service as received by a user of communications services. The tool is called NetQ-UG this can be a great starting point for UCC. Through crowdsourcing of anonymized data of its users, the tool provides insight into the coverage of the communications services and the quality of service offered across the country.
The internet broadband coverage map of Uganda should be designed to show consumers what kind of cellular coverage they can expect in a given area from all mobile telecom service providers including MTN, Africell, Lycambile, UTL, and Airtel. This would be a great starting point and we don’t expect the coverage map to address home internet availability at least for the start. Most telecom companies already submit this coverage information to UCC.
It shouldn’t take this long for UCC to produce such a map on its website as the lack of details about broadband coverage has created confusion about the so-called digital divide for years in Uganda.
Whether this data is collected or crowdsourced, it’s up to UCC to decide. The issue with allowing telecoms to submit their coverage maps, the data provided by the carriers who don’t have a great reputation for having the most accurate picture of where they do and don’t provide broadband will be misleading.
An Interactive an internet broadband coverage map
We would expect an interactive map that lets users select which carrier’s coverage map they want to see, and it provides information about 2G EDGE, 3G, and 4G-LTE coverage, voice coverage, or both. We expect to have a fairly user-friendly; instead of having to flip between MTN, Airtel, and Africell coverage maps, users should be able to see all of the data in one place, overlaid on top of each other. The map should also provide a distinction between data availability and voice availability — which is useful, as being able to make a call and being able to get online are obviously two very different things.
An internet broadband coverage map should only be the first step in UCC’s work and we expect it to be one of the outputs of the NetQ-UG tool. This will improve the information available to consumers. The map should at least let consumers know the minimum of what mobile coverage they should expect in a given area and gives them the tools to make more informed decisions about their cellular provider or home internet connections in the future.
