The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology is a newly established Ministry. It was established in June 2006 with a mandate of providing:-

• Strategic and technical leadership.
• Overall coordination, support and advocacy on all matters of policy
• Laws
• Regulations.
• And strategy for the ICT sector.

It also ensures sustainable, efficient and effective development, harnessing and utilization of ICT in all spheres of life to enable the country achieve its national development goals.

The Ministry is headed by a Minister who is assisted by one Minister of State.
There are two Directorates namely, the Directorate of Communications & Broadcasting Infrastructure and the Directorate of Information Technology & Information Management Services.
The Directorate of Communications and Broadcasting Infrastructure comprises the Departments of Telecommunications and Posts, and the one of Broadcasting Infrastructure.
The Directorate of Information Technology & Information Management Services comprises the Department of Information Technology and the one of Information Management Services. In addition to the above there is a Department of Finance and Administration and a Division of Planning which provide support services to the entire Ministry.

The Information and Communications Technology sector which the Ministry leads is divided into three levels namely, Policy, Regulatory and Operational.
The Regulatory level is composed of Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) and the proposed National Information Technology Authority (NITA-U), while the operational level is composed of telecommunications, postal, Information Technology (IT) and broadcasting operators.

Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) was established by the Uganda Communications Act, 1997(cap106) laws of Uganda as the regulator of the communications industry in Uganda.
Vision
A Uganda in which development is facilitated through universal access to communications services largely delivered through the private sector.
Mission
Effectively regulate the communications sectors in order to facilitate growth of communications for sustainable development.

Functions of UCC
Key Objectives of UCC
Powers of the Commission
Application for license
Types of licenses
Process for obtaining a license
Required Technical Standards for the operator
Customer complaints desk

Functions of UCC
The Uganda Communications Act spells out in detail the functions of the commission.
Some the functions are summarized as follows:

• Implement the objectives of the act
• Monitor, inspect, license and regulate communication services.
• Allocate and license the use of radio frequency spectrum.
• Make recommendations to the minister responsible for communication in relation to the issuance of major licenses under the Act.
• Establish a tariff system to protect consumers from excessive tariff increase.
• Set national communications standards and ensure compliance with national and international standards and obligation.
• Receive and investigate complaints relating to communications services and to take necessary action (this covers complaints from both operators and consumers/public).
• Improve communication services and ensure equitable distribution of these services throughout the country.
• Promote competition within the communication sector.
• Establish and administer a fund for rural communications development.
• Advise government on all matters relating to the communication sector.
• Regulate interconnection and access systems between operators and users of telecommunication services.

Key Objectives of UCC

• To perform its core functions, the commission has set the following corporate objectives:
• Promote consumer awareness and protect the interests and rights of the consumer in the communications sector through an effective regulatory and licensing regime.
• Plan and efficiently manage the electromagnetic spectrum to the maximum benefit of the public.
• Encourage and oversee competition in the communication sector in order to promote rapid network expansion, standardization as well as provision of competitively priced quality services for the benefit of all stakeholders.
• Promote and ensure national wide penetration and equitable distribution of communication services, with specific emphasis on universal access.
• Develop and manage a training institute that meets the training needs of communications sector.
• Ensure cost effective development and management of commission assets having due regard to relevant environmental concerns.
• Develop and maintain UCC as a lean, highly motivated technology conscious organization providing a conducive environment for professional and institutional growth and environment.
• Ensure effective and timely monitoring and evaluation of the strategic and business plans to support efficient decision making at commission and management levels. Top

Powers of the Commission

• The following are some of the powers, which may be exercised by the course of execution of its functions:
• Arbitrate disputes arising between operators and consumers and to enforce its decision.
• Institute a levy on the gross annual revenues from services licensed under the Act from services operators as provided under the third schedule to the third schedule to the Act; or
• Impose a fine on a person who unlawfully possesses installs, connects or apparatus, or unlawfully provides or performs any communication services.
• Charge for services provided by it.
• To appoint any person/inspectors to inquire any matter pending before the commission and or verify compliance with the provision of the Act and the license.
• Confiscate any apparatus that is unlawfully possessed, installed, connected, or operated. Top

Application for license
Any person may apply to the commission to the following:

1. Establish a communication station.
2. Provide communications services.
3. Construct, maintain and operate telecommunications apparatus

Types of licenses
UCC is mandated to issue licenses in respect of the following categories of services:

1. Courier services.
2. Public Infrastructure Provider (PIP).
3. Radio Communication Services.
4. Public Service Provider (PSP).
5. Equipment vending services and installation.
6. General Authorization. Top

Process for obtaining a license
All communications services providers and operators are required to apply to Uganda Communications Commission for the relevant licenses by obtaining an application form/guide lines and complying with the requirements contained in it.
After the form is filled it should be returned with supporting documentation to UCC.
Depending on the type and or class of license, the licensing procedure from submission of the completed application forms would take a minimum of four weeks and a maximum of six weeks and would consist of the following:

1. Preliminary screening of appliance.
2. Publishing of the applicant?s application in the newspaper for a period of two weeks inviting members of the public to give comments or objections to the application. All publications are done during the last 2 weeks of every month.
3. If the commission does not find any reasons not to grant a license, the applicant will be given a license, which must be signed and returned to the Commission within 90 days. An invoice will be issued within a week after payment.
4. If an objection was raised, the commission will investigate for not more than 2 weeks.
5. If an applicant is dissatisfied with the decision, the Commission may cause a public hearing to consider the allegations raised about the applicant.
6. If the public hearing resolves the matter, the commission will act accordingly.
7. If the applicant is not satisfied with the results of the public hearing he may appeal to the tribunal.
8. The Commission shall then act accordingly to the tribunal?s ruling. Top

Required Technical Standards for the operator
UCC is mandated to type approve all communication equipment intended for use in the country. The purpose of the type approval of the equipment is to ensure compliance to international standards as well as local conditions and prevent distortion and degradation of the national network that would occur if such non-compliant/sub standard equipment is connected to the national network and also prevent dumping of sub-standard and inferior equipment in the country.

Customer complaints desk
One of the core functions of the commission is to provide consumer awareness and protect the interests and rights of the consumer in the communication sector through an effective regulatory and licensing regime.

The function is executed by UCC through the following:

1. Establishment and control of tariff system.
2. Setting of national standards.
3. Monitoring of quality of services.
4. Type approval of equipments used in delivery of services.
5. Receiving and following up customer complaints with the service providers.

UCC has set up a customer complaints desk whose main function is to receive and follow up customer complaints with the relevant service providers. Top

For complaints please contact
Uganda Communications Commission

Apple TV a is a digital media receiver manufactured, marketed and sold by Apple. It is a small form-factor network appliance designed to play digital content originating from the iTunes store, YouTube, Flickr, MobileMe or any Mac OS X or Windows computer running iTunes onto an enhanced-definition or high-definition widescreen television.

Your computer is the center of your digital life. Your TV is the center of your entertainment life. But what if you want to watch movies, TV shows, movie trailers, podcasts, and photos from your computer on your TV? For one low price, Apple TV brings iTunes to the big screen.

Say you?ve just downloaded Prison Break from iTunes. Instead of huddling around your computer to watch, you pop some popcorn while your computer wirelessly syncs your new flick to Apple TV. Then you pull up a seat, put up your feet, and pick up the included Apple Remote to play your movie on TV. Give yourself a hand: You've just changed the way you watch digital media.

SEE WHAT APPLE SAYS ON APPLE TV.

Put more HD on your HDTV.
HD movies. HD TV shows. HD podcasts. With Apple TV, they?re all on demand. You get instant access to newly released Hollywood, ugawood, nollywood or boliwood hits and popular classic and library titles, including the largest selection of on-demand HD movies. And now you can also purchase and watch your favorite TV shows in brilliant HD one day after they air.

Play your music through your home theater system.
With Apple TV, iTunes syncs wirelessly to your TV, so all the music you?ve collected can now be played on the best speakers in your house. The new Genius feature studies your iTunes library to automatically create a playlist of songs that go great together. You can also browse and buy music videos on the iTunes Store. And sync songs and videos purchased on Apple TV to your computer and iPod or iPhone.

VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) technology is gaining prominence in Africa in spite of the general fiber optic networks are the panacea to bringing down the soaring internet connectivity rates that have hindered the penetration of these services in most African countries.

Speaking during a presentation on the advantage of VSAT, job Ndege General Manager Afsat Communication Limited and ICT expert in the region, said that there was still a ranging debate on advantages of VSAT and Fiber Optic networks, but in the case of Africa VSAT was gaining more acceptance due to its maturity, reliable and efficiency, having supported ISP?s and telecommunications services providers since 1989.

He said that apart from the colossal cost of installing fiber optic networks and the high risk of being cut and damaged, there was a very low motivation to invest in this technology due to small user base especially in Africa. "Fiber optics cables in Africa are predominantly being used for backbone or backhaul and not for last mile solutions" he said.

In contrast he explained that VSAT beats the last mile problem by connecting a customer?s network directly to the internet on a single Hop unlike most technologies which rely on others for internet connectivity.

"VSAT technology is time tested and can be activated much more quickly than terrestrial networks. They offer a much higher reliability by linking to an internet backbone, bypassing congested terrestrial lines, exchanges and numerous interconnections thus reducing the potential points of failure" he added.

He said that the challenge that is facing internet users in Africa today is the high cost of connectivity associated with international backbone or gateway links delivered through fiber optic or satellite. "The cost of these links is very high which poses a great barrier for African countries to participate in international trade."

Outlining the future of VSAT, Ndege said that in spite of the USA and Europe having extensive rollout of fiber and cable, the VSAT had continued to grow tremendously with one company, Hughes of USA installing over 110000 news VSAT site a month. "We believe that fiber penetration will be limited at terrestrial backhaul and metro level due to prohibitive costs."
Afsat communication was set up in 1992 to provide ICT services in the East African Region. In 2001 it launched its flagship brand iWay and spread its services through out Sub-Sahara Africa. The iWay brand includes fast, reliable and cost effective broadband internet access and custom made inter-corporate interconnectivity solutions. Afsat has subsidiaries in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria and has presence in 28 Sub-Sahara Africa countries through a network of distributors. Afsat currently has over 5,000 VSAT on the broadband platform and over 200 VSATs on intra-corporate platform.
Afsat has won several recognitions in the last one year:

?Afsat won The Best Operator in Developing Market at the world communications Awards (WCA) in November 2007.
?In April 2008, Afsat won the Best VSAT Operator in Africa, Company of the Year during the Satcom Stars Awards.
?The 10th Edition of the Comsys VSAT report published in October 2007, ranks Afsat as the Largest Broadband VSAT operator in Africa with close to 20% market share.

By Job Ndege (General Manager)
AFSAT COMMUNICATION LIMITED

It has come to my attention that the business community in Uganda and around the world considers their businesses or companies having online presence to be either wastage of time, money or considered to be for the rich companies only!
Studies have been carried out around the world, showing that most businesses are convinced that websites do not benefit their type of business. Other business owners believe that having a website exposes their company secrets to the competitors hence will lead to their down fall.
Internet experts believe that if businesses do not deal with their fears and anxieties, they are likely to be left behind in this competitive world.

I have come up with my 10 unique reason why your business needs online presence:-

01. Low Advertising and Marketing costs: Did you know the one time cost of designing a website and annual fees you spend on renewals (domain & hosting), website maintenance is just a smallest fraction on the cost you spend a year on printing out brochures, billboards, flyers and many others? And yet with you having a website, whatever is printed out or shown in adverts can be in the website and you?re guaranteed of wide market coverage.

02. 24/7 business operations: With online presence, your company or organization is open for business to anyone, anywhere around the world for all 24hrs a day, 12months a year. Imagine finding an order or Inquiry about your products waiting for you to just click reply and business transactions start on another or different level. So with a website that has a form, email, and order online function will obviously prompt a client to leave a message or call you later.

03. Communication and Customer care at its best: Imagine just sitting behind your computer and click on the send button?.and in just seconds you have notified all your existing and prospective clients about your new products, promotions, achievements in quickest move possible.
Imagine you providing answers through website (FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions) to those constantly boring questions that you have had over and over again about your business. Do you think this would be possible with poster letters?

04. A complement in branding: Did you know that having a nicely designed website can strengthen your corporate image and improve your branding? That is why hiring a professional website designer or company is very essential. Because you want to emphasize the branding then usability, easy access, friendly look of website is so important. I will give the basics of nicely designed website next time.

05. Your online presence adds confidence, trust, belief and hope into your clients. This shows how your business is a step ahead of the others and how your products are easily understood. I have noticed that customers always want to purchase a product or service they have understood. No one wants to buy something is ignorant about! Do you? Top

06. Increased business relationships: Research has proved that enhanced marketing and management in business relationships bring big sales to companies. This is characterized by an exchange between two or more parties. In simple terms your website could contain information related to other businesses your clients might show interest for.

07. New consumer generations: even though the majority of the companies do not make vendor selections based on Google or yahoo searches, you cannot rule out the possibility that an employee of the company might make some initial searches on the internet to research information and find potential vendors. It makes sense to put a quality website in place for them.

08. Survey (Market research): You want to know how your products or services are fairing on the market? Well, website can just do that with help of tools like opinion polls, survey, statistical tools and many more out there.

09. Contact information ? With website, your contact details are accessed by a click away. This makes it easy to be located by anyone, anywhere which actually is the hardest thing in business (reaching you).

Well you still need more? I guess you need to know this;
?No business owner should feel it's too late to join the digital revolution. Put simply, there are now solutions designed with them in mind. In today's difficult economic climate, every enterprise, small businesses should have their door open to the Web? Top