Uganda Police Force To Abandon Use of UTL Services After 14 Years in Work

Nathan Ernest Olupot May 5, 2017

Less than a minute

UTL offices in Kampala | Photo by : East African Van Guard.

With the current situation Uganda Telecom LTD (UTL) is facing, the firm was placed under government receivership following the withdrawal of their biggest shareholders; Libya Post Telecommunications and IT company (LPTIC) earlier this year.

According to reports we obtained, the Uganda Police Force is said to quit using the firms services after 14 years of working with them.

The reports came in after Police Spokesperson; Asan Kasingye confirmed that the force is in the process of getting a new telephone services provider.

Citing The Observer, statistics from the ICT directorate show that police has more than 8000 simcards registered with UTL and spends about 400 million UGX each month to maintain these simcards.

According to reliable sources in the ICT directorate, a survey conducted by the force shows that more than three quarters of the police commanders cannot be reached using their official UTL numbers due to poor network reception.

“It has been hard to access officers on their official numbers and it’s even harder for the public to reach them,” The Observer reports.[related-posts]

Notably, on Wednesday H.E the President of Uganda; Yoweri Kaguta Museveni – swung in to save firm which was facing a possible liquidation. The President immediately assembled a team of lawyers, who successfully filed for bankruptcy, in a desperate last minute measure to save the company.