With price wars again gripping Uganda's telecom market, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) is again looking at reducing interconnection rates between networks. As early as September, the UCC may again reduce the rates, reported the Daily Monitor. UCC Director of Competition and Corporate Affairs David Ogong was reported to be consulting with telecommunications operators in the country over the possibility of further reducing interconnection rates as an attempt to increase mobile penetration in the country, which currently sits at some 35 percent. The current rate of Shs131 per minute is a reduction from Shs180 per minute established last year. However, the current rate is more than double Kenya's interconnection rate of Shs60 per minute and users have expressed frustration at the high costs. “The commission is also in the process of reviewing interconnection rates and we expect off-net rates to come downward,” Ogong said at a press conference in Kampala. Despite the optimism of analysts and mobile users in the country, telecom operators in Uganda have become more forceful in their opposition to the continued reduction of rates, calling on the UCC to allow the market to reduce prices when necessary. BM
