UCC claims success in slashing dropped, blocked calls

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Uganda Communication Commission-UCC says that it has saved telecom users from a loss of up to USD 500 million (1.8 trillion Shillings) in dropped and blocked calls.

UCC Communications Officer Ibrahim Bbosa says that Ugandan telephone users were suffering a 5 per cent loss through dropped and blocked calls by 2014. The dropped calls were mainly as a result of network failure by the various service providers.

According to the national communications regulator, blocked calls as those where a person initiates a call but does not successfully connect due to network failure, whereas dropped calls are those disconnected before a customer completes their call but are charged a full cost by the service provider.

According to Bbosa, UCC has since been policing all registered telecoms in the country to ensure that their connectivity services are improved.

Joseph Kizito, the UCC Head of Consumer Affairs indicates that their Quality of Services Report compiled from a national survey indicates a significant improvement by the Telecom operators in ensuring that clients are served with the reliable telecommunication services.

He explains that their latest survey report released in December 2018, shows that the rate of uncompleted calls has generally reduced to 2 per cent.     Kizito attributes the improvement to frequent engagements in which the service providers are opened to public scrutiny.

Meanwhile, Vincent Waiswa Bagiire, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology is rooting for a National Telecom Roaming platform, to address the challenge of network connectivity across the country.

He says the Ministry of ICT intends to table a policy before parliament that enables all telecom service providers to share common network connection platforms such that their coverage is equitably accessed in all corners of the country.

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