[UgaBYTES] Broadband Internet prices finally going down

[Mwathi Francis]

 Yesterday I walked into Uganda Telecoms Limited’s temporary offices at
Posta Uganda (Their state of art Rwenzori Court location is under
renovations) to fulfill my monthly obligations of paying for my internet
connection. While this is nothing out of the ordinary for me, this time I
was in for a pleasant surprise. The smartly dressed lady on the other side
of the counter told me that my bill was approximately 40 US dollars.
Suspecting some sort of mistake I promptly pointed out to her that on
average I pay about 100 dollars. ‘Oh !’ she said with a smile that made me
forget of the hustle and bustle of the lunch time traffic jam I faced in the
scorching Kampala heat while coming here, ‘With effect from 1st April our
charges will be slashed by over 50%’ . To tell you the truth I had seen this
coming. I have been following the developments in the Telecom industry for
quite sometime now. We have seen them digging, endless adverts on the media
of the new era in online activity, fights on what amount was meant for what
and even accusations and counter accusations with road authorities on who
trespassed into whose allocated land. All the way from Busia and Malaba
border towns criss-crossing the country were the fibre optics being laid.
Since 2008 we were promised that soon internet prices will go down and
accessing such services will no longer be a luxury. Just a few weeks ago Mr
Geoffrey Kiirya, the principal information scientist and spokesperson in the
ministry of ICT was quoted in a local daily saying that 10 years from now
everything will be fully-computerized and digitalized and people will even
be able to work right from their homes. This now seems to be a reality
indeed. Now that the issue of cost is slowly being taken care of lets hope
that the challenge of computer illiteracy will follow suit as well as
programs be put in place to raise awareness about the benefits the web
offers. According to my projections the next issue that we will be
discussing in the not so far future is whether lowering the price of
broadband will lead to an increase in its use? But until then lets not count
our chicks before the eggs have hatched and marvel at the far that we have
come.

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Watch out for the 'telecentre.org Idol 2010'. More details on
www.telecentre.org

Francis Mwathi
Support Community Facilitator
UgaBYTES Initiatives (www.ugabytes.org)
Telecentr.org (www.telecentrecommunity.ning.com)
Tel: +256 414 370163
Mob: +256 783 010269
Skype: francis.mwathi
E-Mail: mfrancis at ugabytes.org