The National Information Technology Authority (NITA) is a Government agency that not only survived the 2018 agency scrap off, but also strengthened its position as the initial igniter of a well-connected country. Through its National backbone, NITA-U has plans of making Internet connectivity fully available in each and every corner of the pearl of Africa without forgetting the non-4G coverage areas.
Over the weekend, NITA-U fulfilled its promise to the WestNile wing of the country by introducing the 4th phase of the National Backbone Internet project covering areas of Pakawach, Nebbi, Arua, Yumbe, Koboko, Adjumani, Katakwi plus the Uganda-SouthSudan / DRC border points of Oraba, Vurra and Mpondwe.
The 4th phase of the NBI project will not only connect the Northern districts and towns but also provide new International connections to neighboring countries with SouthSudan lying in the North and DRC sharing the eastern wing. In Simple terms, Phase IV is strictly tied to the Westnile Region as NITA-U further spread its e-services legion with free connections and web services for Government offices.
Though the NITA backbone Internet coverage favored the central and Western areas where the free WiFi via the MYUG SSID is a popular norm riding on the complete dd phase 1,2&3 lane. The planned phase IV coverage further stretches to the Karamoja region and preaching all the NITA-U services catalog a notch higher on the National Backbone.
However, does this mean Internet service providers will crawl and lower connection prices in return since a national backbone connection is available? It will be a matter of time once NITA-U succeeds in connecting all country towns and districts to the grid with more planned phases covering the greater West and East zones.