Paul Tententa

Kampala, Uganda - A new mobile telecommunication and internet service providing company, ECI Telecom has entered the Ugandan market.

This has brought the number of telecommunications service providers to eight in Uganda. The country. already has MTN, Uganda Telecom, Airtel, Warid Telecom, Orange Telecom, Smile Telecom, In and I telecom.

During the launch of ECI Telecom in Kampala, Mr Matthias Nass, the vice president field marketing, said they will improve utility services and help service providers to provide cheaper Internet to Ugandans in their first phase of operation.

He said they are now developing a fibre optic cable network for Uganda. ECI Telecom was founded in 1961 and has its headquarters in Israel with a strong presence around the world. It has also developed centers in India, USA and Israel, added Nass.

It has also evolved from a small technology company into an experienced global provider of networking solutions.

According to Nass, it's also a market leader in many emerging markets, including India, parts of South East Asia and the former Soviet Union.

Uganda's ICT minister Aggrey Awori welcomed ECI Telecom the leading supplier of networking infrastructure in the world for carrier and service provider networks to Uganda.

Awori noted that most global businesses evaluate the ICT infrastructure of a country before making a decision to enter the market in a country adding that ECI Telecom gave Uganda an opportunity to add on what they have.

He pointed out that ICTS enable individuals in a country to increase their standard of living by providing a variety of new applications that include e-health, e-learning, e-government and e-banking which enables trading of goods and services in a much more efficient way.

“With the connection of undersea cables at the coast of our neighbour Kenya and our good relationship with the government of Kenya, we were able to secure the connection of Uganda to the global Internet with satisfying bandwidth.“The next step which has been started already is the roll out of fibre networks to all parts of the country to enable the whole country to benefit from these developments.” said Awori.