Uganda utility wants to offer telecom infrastructure

Power utility Uganda Electricity Transmission Company (UETCL) has applied to the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) for a public infrastructure provider (PIP) license.

If granted, the license will enable the electricity transmission company to establish, operate and maintain infrastructure for the provision of communication services.

UETCL will use the infrastructure for communication purposes to essentially help it monitor its expanding power grid, but the fiber optics will also be made available for commercial use to telecommunications companies and ISPs (Internet service providers).

Already, providers in the telephony and data service sectors, among them MTN, Celtel, Uganda Telecom and Infocom, have approached UETCL to discuss the possibility of the latter carrying some of their capacity on its infrastructure.

UETCL, which went into building fiber optics for its own purposes, would, if granted the license, then sell capacity and in effect save on capital costs, Godfrey Kisekka, the company's ICT manager, told IDG.

For some time now, UETCL has installed fiber optics over the power lines, replacing the PLC (power line communication carrier) technology the utility has used in the past for its communication purposes.

"We are installing fiber optics because it offers us a lot of capacity, more capacity than we can use up, and because we will be selling a lot of the capacity to private players, we have had to apply for a license to enable us to sell some of that capacity," Kisekka said.

UETCL is installing a fiber cable with 24 cores. Out of the 24 cores, the utility will use up only four cores, leaving 20 cores idle. It is this unutilized capacity that would be made available to telecom companies, the media, the banking sector and other types of companies. Kisekka said UETCL has set up 430 kilometers of fiber optics, comprising three lines linking the Nalubale power station with the capital, Kampala, and the border with Kenya. Of the 430 kilometers of fiber, 50 kilometers cover the capital, Kampala.

"And we are still going ahead to build fiber. We are in position to extend coverage of the fiber optics in our refurbishment plans of the power lines. According to our new development plan, all new lines will have fiber optics installed," Kisekka said.

UETCL currently has a power grid measuring 1,400 kilometers, covering more than three-quarters of the country. The power transmitter is at different stages of refurbishing four power grids around the country with three new lines, including one that will transport power from the Albertine area in the northwest, where oil has been discovered.

Fiber optics, according to Kisekka, are less costly to install if put over power lines and expensive to build underground, as has been the case with fiber that MTN and Uganda Telecom are building between Uganda's border with Kenya and that with Rwanda. According to Kisekka, fiber installed over power lines reduces losses in communication. Such losses are common with the satellite links, which are in use today.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.