Kampala — SOME 2,000km of optic fibre network will be constructed by China, a Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) official has revealed.

UIA's in charge of information and communication technology, John Musajjakawa, disclosed that the Government had signed a $106m(sh189.2b) deal with China to do the work.

Musajjakawa said the Government is supposed to construct the country's superhighway so that the whole country is covered and users get affordable bandwidth.

"We appreciate MTN and uganda telecom's infrastructure development efforts. However, the capacity is too limited to give connectivity up to the sub-counties," he elaborated.

The East African newspaper of December 11-17 reported that Uganda's two telecom operators had protested a decision by the new Information and Communication Technology (ICT) ministry and industry regulator Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), to take over development of a national communications backbone.

"The two firms claim that the Government, through the ministry, wants to stop them and take over the job. This, the firms argue, will at worst mean wastage of millions of dollars of network they have laid down. At best, it can lead to a useless duplication of infrastructure," said the paper.

Musajjakawa said: "Governments always make interventions when it is necessary. Surrounding countries are getting ahead of us. We are getting less competitive if we don't get this infrastructure."

He added that MTN has laid 289.8km, while uganda telecom has 248.2km of optic fibre.

"In preparation for the East Africa backhaul as part of the East African Submarine System (EASSy) project, Kenya is laying more than 5,400km of optic fibre," he elaborated.

"Kenya has also signed a memorandum to build an optic fibre link to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. The project, dubbed The East African Marine System, will cost over Ksh5.7b (sh148.2b)," Musajjakawa said.

"The Government needs to invest in infrastructure that will reach all districts irrespective of the economic viability and enable different players deliver services off this infrastructure," Wire Lunghabo of Linux Solutions said.

"Though a commendable job was done by MTN and uganda telecom, it still falls short of the national requirement if we are to meet our objective of connecting the whole country by 2010," UCC's corporate affairs officer Fred Otunnu said.

UIA's executive director Dr. Maggie Kigozi, however, said that the laying of the optic fibre cables should be a public-private partnership because some parts of the country are not commercially-viable and can only be covered through the Government's intervention.

"MTN and uganda telecom have done a good job of laying the cables and agreeing to share the infrastructure that has opened up the sector for private sector investment," Kigozi commended.