Power utility Uganda Electricity Transmission (UET) will be granted a public infrastructure provider licence pending formalities, according to a company official.

Neither the Uganda Communications Commission nor UET have made a formal announcement regarding the license, which the company applied for in April. However, the official, who preferred to remain anonymous, stated that UET has already paid an application fee and a licensing fee of US$2,500 each.

"A letter of credit showing the technical specifications is the other requirement we have to fulfill, and then the official announcement will be made," he said.

An entry fee of $100,000 and an annual license fee of $10,000 are also required of UET, the official added.

The license will enable the electricity transmission company to establish, operate and maintain infrastructure for the provision of communication services. UET will use the infrastructure for communication purposes to help it monitor its expanding power grid and will make the fiber optics available to other companies for commercial use.

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

For some time now, UET has installed fiber optics over power lines. The company is now installing a fiber cable with 24 cores, of which it will only use four. The other 20 cores will be made available to telecoms, ISPs (Internet service providers), the media and the banking sector.

UET already has 430 kilometers of fiber-optic cables covering its power grid of 1,400 kilometers, but fiber will be extended in the company's refurbishment plans. It is in different stages of refurbishing four power grids across the country and plans to build three new lines.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.