Having met all conditions required to renew its license on June 13^th, MTN Uganda’s new license is set to run for 12 years and took effect on 1^st July 2020.

In a press conference hosted by the UCC, the commission handed over the new 12-year license, which is the 2^nd of its kind to MTN since it’s initial launch date in October 1998 with a 20-year license that expired on 21st October 2018.

The new MTN Uganda National license has been acquired at a fixed fee of UGX 100 million (Approx UGX 371.5billion) paid in full by the telco. Having delayed to secure the license since 2018, MTN’s CEO Mr. Wim Vanhelluptte shared his Joy while receiving the new Operator License as he Tweeted:

“I am glad to inform you that our second National Operator License has been signed and MTN can continue operating in Uganda. We are happy and remain committed to our vision of delivering a bold digital life to all our customers through diligent innovations and shall continue to provide high-quality voice, data and mobile money services connecting Ugandans across all the 135 districts of Uganda,”

Wim Vanhelleputte – CEO, MTN Uganda

As a strict license additive, UCC earlier this year issued a directive requiring all telcos to list on the Uganda stock exchange market effective with new licenses from the commission.

However, neither MTN nor UCC inked whether the telco after receiving its license will be listing 20% of its shares on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) market as previously required.

For now, MTN Uganda is a fully licensed National Telecommunications operator after acquiring its 2^nd license since its initial operations in 1998. Predictively, we expect the telco to continue disrupting the voice and data offers industry as it has always done.

Currently, the telco is rewarding customers with free cash to survive in the current COVID19 pandemic through its revamped Momo Nyabo Campaign. Likely, the telco continues to reign as the biggest provider with over 13million registered customers countrywide.

However, some of these issues are yet to be addressed even as Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) and the telecom continue to engage with the target to resolve all concerns by the end of this month.

“… there are a number of outstanding areas of non-compliance which must be addressed before the Commission [UCC] progresses [on] the application for renewal of MTN’s license,” an evaluation report authored by UCC and signed by the regulator’s executive director, Mr Godfrey Mutabazi, reads in part.

The report, which is a requirement of the telecommunications sector licensing regime, was authored following MTN’s October 3, 2017 application for a single term renewal of its license for another 10 years.

Key among the concerns, according to the report, include a delay to adequately address consumers’ complaints, noncompliance with some regulatory directives such as sending unsolicited messages to customers without the “opt out” information, discriminatory trade terms and refusing or delaying to give competitors interconnect agreements within the stipulated time.

“In the last two years MTN has consistently fallen short of the established threshold to resolve 90% of all consumer complaints within 24 hours,” the report reads in part, noting that the telecom has only managed to handle 75.5% of complaints contrary to required minimums.

Beyond this, UCC noted that MTN has also fallen short of its interconnection obligations, which under the Interconnection Negotiations Timelines, the telecom is required to conclude within three months.

For instance, the report said that whereas MTN had sufficiently addressed interconnection agreements for Utl, Airtel, Africell, Sure Telecom, and Smile Communications, among others, the telecom had failed to effectively handle agreements for One Solution, Roke Telecom and Simbanet. Henceforth, as Smart telecom (Sure Telecom) managed to fix its interconnection wooes with the Yello telecom, hands are crossed for the same with Roke Telkom which is more of a promising telecommunications company in Uganda.

MTN Uganda’s contract which is due to expire next month in October may be at a standstill as UCC will have to analyze the telecom’s level of compliance given the rowdy #MTNMwedeko campaign that stormed Twitter long before the Bosco AD checked in as a remedy. However, as we recently witnessed MTN blocking several VPNs in line with UCC’s policies, the Telecom may renew its license for more 10 years after impressing the regulator.