Uganda - Mobile Market - Overview, Statistics and Forecasts

Synopsis

The introduction of mobile telephony has revolutionised Uganda’s telecommunications industry since Celtel/Zain (now Bharti Airtel) launched the first network in 1995, followed by MTN in 1998, Uganda Telecom in 2001, Warid Telecom in 2008 and HiTS Telecom, in which France Telecom’s mobile unit Orange bought a majority stake in 2009. The intensified competition led to an unsustainable price war which has accelerated subscriber growth but also the fall of average revenue per user (ARPU). However, with market penetration still well below the African average, hundreds of millions of US dollars are being invested into new infrastructure. The operators started to increase their tariffs again in 2011 and at the same time are trying to find ways of generating additional revenue streams. Mobile data and 3G broadband services as well as mobile money transfer and m-banking services are at the forefront of this development in a country where less than 20% of the population currently has Internet access or holds bank accounts.

Companies covered in this report:

MTN, Bharti Airtel, Uganda Telecom (UTL), Warid Telecom, Orange (HiTS Telecom), i-Tel, Simba Telecoms.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
• 2. Overview of Uganda’s mobile market
  • 2.1 Mobile statistics
• 3. Regulatory issues
  • 3.1 Licensing
  • 3.2 Taxes
  • 3.3 infrastructure sharing
• 4. Major mobile operators
  • 4.1 MTN Uganda
    • 4.1.1 Major equity transactions
    • 4.1.2 Network infrastructure and services
    • 4.1.3 ARPU
    • 4.1.4 MTN villagePhone project
    • 4.1.5 Services in refugee camps
  • 4.2 Bharti Airtel Uganda (formerly Zain, Celtel)
    • 4.2.1 Major equity transactions
    • 4.2.2 Network infrastructure
    • 4.2.3 Services
    • 4.2.4 ARPU
  • 4.3 Uganda Telecom Ltd (UTL)
  • 4.4 Warid Telecom
  • 4.5 Orange Uganda (HiTS Telecom)
  • 4.6 i-Tel
• 5. Tariffs and price war
  • 5.1 Per-second billing
  • 5.2 Free calls
  • 5.3 Flat rates
  • 5.4 MTN Zone
  • 5.5 Free international roaming
• 6. Mobile data services
  • 6.1 SMS
  • 6.2 WAP, GPRS and EDGE
  • 6.3 MMS
  • 6.4 BlackBerry
  • 6.5 Third generation (3G)
  • 6.6 Mobile TV
• 7. Mobile money transfer, m-banking
  • 7.1 Traditional bank charges and international remittances
  • 7.2 Regulation
  • 7.3 MTN Mobile Money
  • 7.4 ZAP (Zain)
  • 7.5 M-Sente (UTL)
  • 7.6 Other services
• 8. Forecasts
  • 8.1 Forecasts – mobile market 2013; 2016
  • 8.2 Notes on scenario forecasts
• 9. Related reports

• Table 1 – Mobile subscribers and penetration rate – 1996 - 2012
• Table 2 – MTN Uganda subscribers – 2000 - 2010
• Table 3 – MTN Uganda ARPU – 2002 - 2010
• Table 4 – Zain Uganda subscribers – 2002 - 2009
• Table 5 – Zain Uganda ARPU – 2006 - 2009
• Table 6 – Forecast mobile subscribers – 2013; 2016

• Chart 1 – Mobile subscribers and penetration rate – 2002 - 2010

• Exhibit 1 – Emergency rescue scheme for Lake Victoria