Q3 INDUSTRY

REPORT 2018

Telecommunications,

Broadcasting & Postal markets

1

Legal Disclaimer

The information and figures contained herein are obtained from

licensees’ submissions to the Commission and other sources

available to the Commission.

It is intended to provide a communications market overview to

the industry, prospective entrants, government, academia and

other stakeholders.

UCC does not give any warranty and may not be liable for the

interpretation arising from its use or misuse.

1. The sector at a glance

2. The mobile and fixed markets

3. Communication Traffic

4. The sector contribution to Tax Revenue

5. The communication infrastructure

6. Mobile Financial services (Mobile Money);

7. The Broadcasting services

8. Postal services.

9. Product and pricing movements in the industry

This report is a review of the

industry performance, trends and

critical developments for the

quarter covering the period July to

September 2018.

Reference periods marked with an

asterisk (*) implies estimates.

Introduction

3

Key indicators Dec-17 Mar-18 Jun-18 Sep-18

Mobile Subscriptions 24,948,878 24,024,925 21,648,672 23,249,967

Fixed Lines subscription 262,286 260,447 252,165 134,343

Teledensity 66.9 62.2 56.1 60

PSP Voice and Data Licenses 33 33 31 33

PIP Licenses 23 23 22 22

No of operational TV stations 33 33 33 33

No of Pay TV service providers 8 8 8 8

Active Pay TV Subscriptions 1,347,542 1,198,398 1,469,129 2,165,293

No of FTA vendors 28 28 28 28

Population Est: 39,041,200 (UBOS)

Uganda’s communications Sector at a Glance

4

Dec 2017 March

2018 June 2018 Sep-18

Mobile subscription 24,948,878 24,024,925 21,648,672 23,249,967

Fixed 262,286 260,447 252,165 98,498

Teledensity 66.92 61.5 56.1 60

24,948,878 24,024,925

21,648,672

23,249,967

262,286 260,447 252,165 98,498

66.9261.5

56.1

60

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

-

5,000,000

10,000,000

15,000,000

20,000,000

25,000,000

30,000,000

Trend in Tele-density, Mobile and Fixed Subscriptions

A total of 1,601,295 new SIM cards

were registered in the period July

to September 2018. The growth

(7%) in subscription could partly be

due to an organic increase in

mobile business and quality of

customer acquisition.

61% drop in fixed-line subscriptions

registered in the quarter under

review.

5

7,449,275,094

11,293,092,924 11,775,613,813 12,088,114,192

167,134,855

256,983,526

152,327,575 158,111,462

-

50,000,000

100,000,000

150,000,000

200,000,000

250,000,000

300,000,000

-

2,000,000,000

4,000,000,000

6,000,000,000

8,000,000,000

10,000,000,000

12,000,000,000

14,000,000,000

Dec 2017 March 2018 June 2018 Sept.2018

On net traffic (voice) Off net traffic (voice)

On-net traffic dominates the traffic

market because Uganda is mostly

an on-net market due to voice

bundle offerings.

The off-net traffic grew by

5,783,887 implying interconnect

revenue growth of UGX

375,952,655.

On-net & Off-net voice traffic

6

-

5,000,000

10,000,000

15,000,000

20,000,000

25,000,000

30,000,000

35,000,000

40,000,000

45,000,000

50,000,000

JUNE 18 * SEP-18

20,534,185

47,227,609

9,734,841

31,465,318

ONA VOICE TRAFFIC

Incoming voice traffic (minutes)

Outgoing voice traffic (minutes)

The quarter under review

registered more incoming

ONA traffic than the outgoing

traffic. The incoming ONA

traffic grew by 41%, and the

outgoing ONA traffic increased

by 90%.

ONA countries are Uganda,

Kenya, Rwanda and South

Sudan.

ONA TRAFFIC

ONA data

Inbound

roaming traffic

92%

ONA data outbound

roaming traffic

8%

ONA DATA ROAMING

TRAFFIC SEPT 2018

ONA data Inbound roaming traffic

ONA data outbound roaming traffic

7

8,274,369

, 57%

6,140,997

, 43%

INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC

International traffic voice incoming (Excluding ONA)

International traffic voice outgoing (Excluding ONA)

More international incoming

voice traffic was registered

in this quarter than the

international outgoing voice

traffic.

Subsequently, the sector

realised a total of UGX

744,693.21 in tax collected

from the International

incoming traffic. This

excludes international traffic

from ONA countries.

8

-

10,000,000,000

20,000,000,000

30,000,000,000

40,000,000,000

50,000,000,000

60,000,000,000

70,000,000,000

80,000,000,000

DEC 2017 MARCH 2018 JUNE 2018 SEP-18

Reven

ues

Dec 2017 March 2018 June 2018 Sep-18

Excise 62,793,691,206 65,837,417,564 73,253,596,402 72,503,346,529

VAT 43,239,145,861 53,749,187,967 58,050,629,412 57,934,650,693

PAYE 8,004,379,096 7,919,061,597 9,965,521,533 11,533,844,379

A cumulative figure of UGX

142 billion was realised this

quarter compared to the UGX

141 billion realised in the

previous quarter.

The increase (0.5%) in tax

collections is due to increases

in PAYE.

Telecommunications Tax Contribution

Source: URA 9

1,865,515

1,923,487

1,187,859

1,076,056

- 500,000 1,000,000 1,500,000 2,000,000 2,500,000

JUNE* 2018

Sep-18

Number of outbound roamers-ONA Number of inbound roamers-ONA

Inbound ONA roamers increased

during the quarter under review

when compared to the number

of outbound roamers. The

number of inbound roamers grew

by 3.1%, and the number of

outbound roamers dropped by

9.4%.

ONA Unique Roaming subscribers

10

International voice Inbound

roamers MOC,

262,627 , 37%

International

voice Inbound

roamers MT,

136,019 , 19%

International voice outbound

roamers MOC,

65,238 , 9%

International voice outbound

roamers MT,

247,082 , 35%

INTERNATIONAL Roaming Traffic,

Sept. 2018

International voice Inbound

roamers MOC

International voice Inbound

roamers MT

International voice outbound

roamers MOC

International voice outbound

roamers MT

ONA voice Inbound roamers

MOC, 2,762,459

, 5%

ONA voice Inbound

roamers MT,

29,911,062 ,

59%

ONA voice outbound

roamers

MOC,

656,389 , 1%

ONA voice outbound

roamers MT,

17,570,668 ,

35%

ONA Roaming Traffic, Sept. 2018

ONA voice Inbound roamers MOC

ONA voice Inbound roamers MT

ONA voice outbound roamers MOC

ONA voice outbound roamers MT

Roaming traffic (voice), Sept 2018

MOC-Mobile Originated Call; MT-Mobile Terminated call 11

Dec 2017 March 2018 June 2018 Sept. 2018

3,691,904

2,266,151 2,394,493 2,220,361

12,588,164

7,672,876 8,056,345

11,071,827

International Outgoing SMS International Incoming SMS

Dec 2017 March 2018 June 2018 Sept. 2018

1,444,287,250

2,303,754,072

1,954,813,351 1,994,107,044

21,469,994 18,315,326 14,486,729

15,596,678

Out going SMS On net Out going SMS Off net

Trend in SMS traffic

The on-net SMS traffic continues to dominate the SMS

market (99.2%). This is largely explained by the bundle

offerings in on-net services.

The higher traffic of incoming international SMS is

due to global sources terminating in Uganda.

12

INTERNET

13

10,028,847 10,420,126 9,855,034

13,572,396

9,683

9,974

10,273

9,139

8,400

8,600

8,800

9,000

9,200

9,400

9,600

9,800

10,000

10,200

10,400

-

2,000,000

4,000,000

6,000,000

8,000,000

10,000,000

12,000,000

14,000,000

16,000,000

Dec 2017 March 2018 June 2018 Sep-18

Internet subscription (Mobile) Internet subscription (Fixed)

The Uganda internet market is

dominated by mobile internet

compared to fixed internet.

The mobile internet

subscription now stands at

13,572,396 up from 9,855,034

reflecting a growth of 38%.

The internet penetration now

stand at 35%.

Internet Subscriptions

14

4,424 4,425

4,243

4,626

4,000

4,100

4,200

4,300

4,400

4,500

4,600

4,700

As of Dec 2017 As of March 2018 As of June 2018 As of September

2018

Number of Base Transmitter Stations

Communications Infrastructure.

The number of Base Transceiver

Stations (BTSs) grew by (9%)

during the quarter from 4,243 to

4,626.

The number of towers grew

from 2,910 to 2,956 as a result

of 48 new towers constructed

by tower service providers.

This lead to a 1.6% growth in the

number of towers in the

country.

15

Dec-17 Mar-18 Jun-18 Sep-18

UGX 23,362,532 22,683,746 22,733,823 23,948,565

22,000,000

22,200,000

22,400,000

22,600,000

22,800,000

23,000,000

23,200,000

23,400,000

23,600,000

23,800,000

24,000,000

24,200,000

Mobile Money subscriptions

Mobile Money Subscriptions

The number of mobile money

subscription increased by 5%

in the period under review.

Source: BOU and Mobile money service providers

16

Dec 2017 March 2018 June 2018 Sep-18

Value of Transactions 18,136,115,656,548 18,848,872,284,952 19,347,889,204,239 14,799,709,007,694

Balance on customer accounts 511,885,255,712 455,966,442,347 495,977,449,459 1,194,049,430,411

Number of Transactions 340,591,373 340,783,906 358,272,314 536,944,731

0

100,000,000

200,000,000

300,000,000

400,000,000

500,000,000

600,000,000

0

5,000,000,000,000

10,000,000,000,000

15,000,000,000,000

20,000,000,000,000

25,000,000,000,000V

alu

e o

f T

ran

sacti

on

s an

d B

ala

nce o

n C

ust

om

er

acco

un

ts

Mobile Money Transactions

Positive growth has been registered in number of transactions and balance in customer accounts with respective growth of 50%

and 141%. However, the value of transaction declined by 24%. The decline in value of transaction could partly be explained by the

mobile money tax introduced in the service. The effect of this could be seen in the larger growth in balance on customer accounts.

Source: BOU 17

BROADCASTING

18

NO STATION NAMEMODE OF BROADCASTING

(Platform)TELEVISION COVERAGE

1 DSTV Satellite Country Wide

2 ZUKU TV Satellite Country Wide

3 AZAM TV Satellite Country Wide

4 STAR SAT Satellite Country Wide

5 SARTIMES Terrestrial

Kampala, Masaka, Entebbe, Jinja, Mbale,

Mbarara, Luweero, Mukono, Fort Portal, Gulu,

Ssese Island

6 GO TV TerrestrialKampala, Jinja, Iganga, Mbale, Lira, Gulu, Arua,

Kasese, Mbarara, Masaka, Wakiso

7 Kampala SITI Cable Cable Kampala & Jinja

8 KWESE TV Satellite Country Wide

PAY TVs, MODE OF BROADCASTING & GEOGRAPHICAL COVERAGE

19

-

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

Dec 2017 March 2018 June 2018 Sep-18

1,347,542 1,198,389

1,469,129

2,165,293

Pay TV subscriptions

Trend in Pay TV subscriptions

The number of Pay TV subscribers

grew from 1,469,129 to 2,165,293

reflecting a 47% growth in

subscription.

This is largely due to world cup

events and Star Times Uganda

Premier league which is Uganda’s

top football property exclusively on

Star times platform.

20

POST & COURIER

SERVICES

21

Indicator Dec-17 Mar-18 Jun-18 Sep-18

Number of Permanent

Post Offices154 154 154 154

Number of Permanent

Post Offices connected

to the internet

33 33 33 33

Post Offices offering

public internet services25 25 25 25

Private letter boxes 82,900 82,900 82,900 82,900

Postal & Courier Access Postal distribution in Uganda

22

67,246

31,509

43,571

54,399

47,045

21,987

30,435

37,723

6,826

1,924 2,574 2,960

-

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

80,000

Dec 2017 March 2018 June 2018 Sep-18

Domestic Ordinary Letter Posted Domestic Express Mail Services (DEMS)

Domestic Registered Letter

The trend in the domestic

letter post market shows

that, the greatest letter post

traffic is the ordinary one

followed by the EMS and

least by the registered ones.

Quarterly Postal Mail Volumes

23

Letter category Dec 2017 March 2018 June 2018 Sept. 2018

East African Letter postIncoming 6,781 29,729 4,343 6,527

Outgoing 1,489 3,307 2,014 797

European Letter postIncoming 65,464 48,478 41,455 45,196

Outgoing 111,014 51,112 38,448 32,180

Rest of Africa Letter Post

Traffic

Incoming 6,070 7,088 3,045 1,033

Outgoing 1,076 2,704 1,711 778

America Letter Post

Traffic

Incoming 20,431 36,164 17,743 27,022

Outgoing 25,797 34,080 17,154 12,255

Rest of World Letter

Post Traffic

Incoming 30,973 52,615 37,548 49,679

Outgoing 27,039 22,377 22,974 4,748

Letter Traffics

24

In this quarter several promotions were observed especially in the data space and the mobile

financial services e.g the 50% bonus on data bundles by Airtel, gaga Wednesday by MTN.

More tariff plans are available on the two UCC accredited price comparison websites;

1. www.price-check.co.ug

2. www.kompare.ug

Tariffs

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