Govt to review cost of smartphones
Ms Irene Kaggwa Sewankambo, the acting executive director at Uganda Communications Commission
What you need to know:
Speaking at the launch of airtel’s 5G network at Kampala Serena Hotel last evening, where he was the guest of honour, the Minister of ICT and National Guidance, Dr Chris Baryomunsi, said the cost of smart devices is one of the challenges they are facing as a government to foster digital inclusion
The government has pledged to make smart devices affordable to all Ugandans to foster digital inclusion and connectivity in Uganda.
Speaking at the launch of airtel’s 5G network at Kampala Serena Hotel last evening, where he was the guest of honour, the Minister of ICT and National Guidance, Dr Chris Baryomunsi, said the cost of smart devices is one of the challenges they are facing as a government to foster digital inclusion.
“As a government, we are doing everything possible to ensure Ugandans are part of this journey. One of the challenges is the cost of smart devices such as tablets and phones. As government, we are doing everything possible to make them affordable even to those in villages. From Shs1 million phones to phones that cost Shs150,000, we want them reduced to Shs40,000 in the next few months,” he said.
Dr Baryomunsi, who is also the vice chairperson of the Council of Ministers of the East African Community (EAC), further said they are examining the tax regime, engaging different stakeholders and negotiating pricing so that Ugandans can be part of the revolution.
“The introduction of the 5G Network aligns with the ministry and government’s agenda of empowering Ugandans so as to achieve the goals of universal inclusion, sustainable development, economic progress and poverty eradication through digital innovation, combining initiatives across multiple sectors,” Dr Baryomunsi said.
The Uganda Communications Commission executive director, Ms Irene Kaggwa Sewankambo, encouraged the public to harness the new technology to take the country forward.
“Airtel introduced the voice over LTE to ensure better quality of calls and now the data… has done a good job in explaining opportunities in agriculture, education, health, business, and banking, among other sectors,” she said.
5G is the 5th generation mobile network that enables a new kind of network that is designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together including machines, objects, and devices at very high speeds. It delivers higher multi-Gbps peak data speeds, more reliability, massive network capacity, increased availability, and a more uniform user experience to more users.
5G can support up to 1 million connected devices per square kilometre compared to 4G which can only support up to 100,000 connected devices in a similar area. This makes 5G the suitable network over which remote teams can collaborate to undertake tasks.
