Uganda tightens grip on informal Wi-Fi sellers as crackdown continues

Kampala, Uganda – Uganda’s telecommunications regulator has hardened its stance against informal Wi-Fi hotspot operators, saying they cannot be licensed in their current form, months into a nationwide crackdown on a trade that supplies cheap internet to thousands of low-income users.

George William Nyombi Thembo, executive director of the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), said on Wednesday that telecommunications was a highly regulated industry and that no one could operate in it without a licence.

“As they are, there is no way they can be licensed. That one is impossible,” he said in the capital, Kampala.

Nyombi Thembo described the business model of the operators, known locally as “hotspotters”, as “founded on deceit”.

“They must transform if they are to continue working,” he said.

The remarks signal that the regulator has no plans to ease its campaign against the operators. The UCC launched a nationwide enforcement drive against unlicensed public Wi-Fi providers in July, saying they were operating in breach of the country’s communications law. In September, police began operations against unauthorised Wi-Fi resellers in parts of Kampala.

Hotspot operators sell internet access in neighbourhoods and trading centres, often at a fraction of the cost of mobile data bundles. The service has become popular with students, small traders and low-income earners in a country where the price of data remains a barrier for many.

The operators argue that licence fees and requirements are too costly for small businesses, and say the crackdown threatens their livelihoods. The government has asked Parliament for more time to resolve the dispute.

Nyombi Thembo said the regulator had set out a compliance pathway for the operators. Those who could afford a public service provider licence should apply for one, he said, while others could work as agents of licensed companies.

Both routes, he added, would require major changes to how the operators run their businesses. Talks between the operators and the government would continue, he said.

He also rejected what he described as a narrative that hotspot operators had brought Wi-Fi to Uganda.

Nyombi Thembo was speaking at the launch of celebrations marking 20 years of Roke Telkom, a locally owned internet provider. He praised the company for running an agency model for hotspot operators, which he said was one of the regulator’s approved routes.

He called for policies that encourage investment, competition and the sharing of infrastructure between operators.

James Byaruhanga, one of Roke Telkom’s founder directors, said the company had survived fierce price wars over two decades. He said the cost of a 1Mbps internet connection had fallen from $5,500 to less than $1 over that period.

Byaruhanga said Uganda would be better served if a few companies built and ran physical networks while others leased capacity on them. He said six or seven internet providers already used Roke Telkom’s network to reach their own customers.

Peter Muhumuza, Roke Telkom’s chief executive, said the company had grown “beyond connectivity” into a wider provider of technology services for businesses.