The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has fined MTN Uganda USHs.5billion accusing the telecommunications company of repeatedly defying the Commission’s directives.
Making the revelation yesterday at UCC House in Bugolobi, Fred Otunnu the Director of Communication was speaking at the release of the status of the communication sector review where he explained that the decision followed an audit conducted on the telecommunications giants which found despite several warning to MTN to improve network performance, billing platform, nothing had changed which left the Commission with no option other than imposing stringent measure on MTN.
Otunnu explained that, “The Commission has established that MTN has repeatedly defied Commission directive to desist from using short codes 157,169,178 and 183 accordingly, the Commission has decided to impose a fine on MTN of 0.5% of its gross annual revenue approximately UShs.5billion.”
However, efforts to get in touch with MTN over the development were futile as the CEO Brian Gouldie was said to be in the meeting and couldn’t speak to us, while Wendy Angu’Deyo’s the Internal Communications Coordinator at admitted to have heard about the comment but said she was not in position to comment because she hadn’t read the contents in the report” noted Angu’Deyo’s.
“I heard about the report, but haven’t read it fully, so I have no comment about that”
Otunnu however noted that the audit reports are going to touch other players in the industry with UTL and Africell already undergoing the audit review while Airtel will follow suit.
According to UCC, the audit report that covered areas of Compliance to licensing terms and conditions, customer handling mechanisms, billing platforms, anti-competitive behaviors, subscriber data confidentiality, results indicated that MTN was non compliant.