KAMPALA: An agreement reached between Airtel Uganda and Uganda Telecom appears to have avoided a possible shutting off of telecom traffic between the two companies. The companies said that cash-strapped UTL has agreed to a payment agreement with Airtel to maintain services for its users. According to Airtel, part of India's Bharti Group, said that an interconnection agreement with UTL had been terminated on August 15 after the operator had accumulated $2.3 million in debt. An Airtel newspaper advertisement had told subscribers they would not be able to make or receive calls from Uganda Telecom, which is owned by the Libya African Investment Portfolio. The two operators have some four million subscribers that would have been affected if Airtel had stopped calls Uganda Telecom terminating on its network infrastructure. “They have agreed to a new payments plan and so will not switch off Uganda Telecom calls,” said Godfrey Mutabazi, the executive director of the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), the industry regulator. He did not provide details of the agreement. “Both UCC and the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology have agreed with Airtel not to go ahead and lock out Uganda Telecom subscribers from accessing their network.” BM
