By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Tuesday announced that he held a “productive meeting” with the representatives of tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink, which is seeking to establish a presence in the East African country.
“I appreciate their commitment to providing low-cost internet in hard-to-reach areas and establishing a presence in Uganda. They are welcome,” Museveni said on X.
A unit of SpaceX, the satellite internet company owned by Musk, is rapidly expanding its base across the African continent and is already live in over ten countries.
Earlier in the month, it secured operational licences in Somalia and Lesotho.
Ugandan consumers have for a long time complained about the high cost and unreliability of local internet services, which some blame on the lack of sufficient competition in the market.
It is not clear if Starlink has already formally applied for a licence to operate in Uganda.
A spokesman for the country’s communication regulator, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), according to a report by Reuters, was yet to respond to enquiries.
A unit of South African telecom giant MTN Group is the dominant service provider in the East African country’s data market and majorly competes with a unit of India’s Bharti Airtel.
