UCC report shows Airtel Uganda has fastest mobile internet speeds

By George Mangula

Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has released a report showing that Airtel Uganda has the fastest mobile speeds in Uganda, beating its main rival MTN Uganda and two others-Africell and Uganda Telecom.

UCC conducted benchmark measurements of mobile voice telephony and data services in 20 towns across Uganda assessing the Quality of Service received by consumers in the period September to November 2019.

The telecoms considered were; Airtel Uganda Limited, Africell Uganda Limited, MTN Uganda Limited, and Uganda Telecom Limited. And the towns the exercise were carried out from include; Arua, Entebbe, Fort Portal, Gulu, Hoima, Jinja, Kabale, Kampala, Kasese, Lira, Masaka, Masindi, Mbale, Mbarara, Mityana, Moroto, Mubende, Mukono, Soroti, and Tororo.

From the findings, Airtel had the best download throughput in 17 districts with its maximum being 14Mpbs in Mityana and Soroti where MTN scored 2.5Mbps and 4Mbps respectively while Africell scored 3.8Mbs and 3.9Mbs respectively. MTN dominated in Masaka, Mukono and Entebbe towns.

Africell and MTN had their best download throughput speeds in Moroto (roughly 5.8Mps) and Kasese (roughly 6.8Mps) respectively. In the same towns respectively Airtel achieved speeds of 13.Mps and 11.8Mps — twice better than its competition.

Airtel and Africell had drop speeds in Kabala while MTN drop speeds were in Arua and Gulu.

UCC noted a number of factors influencing the quality of network, among which include; congestion, interference, user-end devices, and communications network performance.

MTN ought to work on their 4G network considering that the telecommunication plans to roll-out 5G in the next two-three years.

MTN early this month, showcased the first live 5G network demonstration.