East African Business Week (Kampala)
Edris Kisambira
12 May 2008
Kampala — Power utility, Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL) has applied to the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) for a public infrastructure provider (PIP) licence.
If granted, the license will enable the electricity transmission company to establish, operate and maintain infrastructure for the provision of communication services.
UETCL will use the infrastructure for communication purposes to essentially help it monitor its expanding power grid but the fibre optics will also be made available for commercial use to telecoms and Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
Already, providers in the telephony and data service sectors among them MTN, Celtel, uganda telecom and Infocom have approached UETCL do discuss the possibility of the latter carrying some of their capacity on its infrastructure.
Mr. Godfrey Kisekka, the manager Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at UETCL told IDG in an interview that the company, which has gone into building fibre optics, initially for its own purposes would then sale capacity and in effect save them capital costs that would be invested in building their own fibre.
For sometime now, UETCL has installed fibre optics over the power lines - replacing the PLC (power line communication carrier) technology the utility has used in the past for its communication purposes.
"We are installing fibre optics because it offer us a lot of capacity - more capacity than we can use up and because we will be selling a lot of the capacity to private players, we have had to apply for a licence to enable us sell some of that capacity," Kisekka said.
UETCL is installing a fibre cable with 24 cores. Out of the 24 cores, the utility will use up only four cores leaving 20 cores idle. It is this un-utilised capacity that would be made available to telecoms, the media and the banking sector etc.
Kisekka said UETCL has now set up 430 kilometres of fibre optics comprising three lines linking the Nalubale power station with the capital Kampala and the border with Kenya.
Of the 430 Kilometres of fibre, 50 kilometres covers the capital, Kampala.
"And we are still going ahead to build fibre. We are in position to extend coverage of the fibre optics in our refurbishment plans of the power lines. According to our new development plan, all new lines will have fibre optics installed," Kisekka said.
UETCL currently has a power grid measuring 1,400 kilometres covering more than three quarters of the country. The power transmitter is at different stages of refurbishing four power grids around the country while three new lines including one that will transport power from the Albertine area in the northwest where oil has been discovered.
Fibre optics according to Kisekka are less costly to install if put over power lines and expensive to build underground as has been the case with fibre that MTN and uganda telecom are building between Uganda's border with Kenya and that with Rwanda.
According to Kisekka, fibre installed over power lines reduce losses in communication. Such losses are common with the satellite links, which are in use today. Fibre that has been built by both MTN and uganda telecom is underground but again the two companies would rather buy capacity from UETCL to reach parts of the country where they cannot easily reach today.
"We are not in the competitive game of telecoms, we are willing to share our capacity so that those who buy/lease capacity pay us rental fees to enable us make a return on our investment," Kisekka said.
While the telecoms and ISPs have expressed interest to buy capacity from UETCL, the infrastructure would also be made available to especially electronic media and the burgeoning banking sector to mention a few.
"Going forward, we want small players like radio and television stations to lease the capacity to reach their audiences while the banking sector can also lease capacity to enhance their services," Kisekka said.
According to Kisekka, there is something into their application for a PIP license for every Ugandan and the economy because a new source of income for the power utility could give way to power subsidies.
At the moment, UCC, the sector regulator is seeking opinion/ comments from the public if any, about UETCL's application before a licence is granted or the application is rejected. A decision is expected any time.
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