JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-The Ugandan Consumer Protection Association (UCPA) has called on mobile network operators to begin billing subscribers by the second and not by the minute.
Mobile calls in Uganda are said to be more expensive because the network operators bill per minute and not per second.
Sam Watasa, executive director of the UCPA, said a call on the Mango mobile network for one minute and 10 seconds would see the subscriber charged for one minute and 15 seconds, while on the MTN Uganda network a call of one minute and one second would see the subscriber charged for a full two minutes.
Watasa added that if calls were cheaper, it could encourage more people to get connected.
The high interconnect rates are believed to be the source of the high call rates, which the three mobile operators are currently renegotiating.
Jackie Namara, Celtel marketing manager, said a reduced interconnection should see tariffs reduced accordingly. However, she added the practice of billing per second could make a call more expensive when running to the full minute.
Thomas Bragaw, chief executive of MTN Uganda, said the current tariff levels need to remain in place to justify further investment, saying the network had invested some US$175 million into the Ugandan market, and the interconnect agreements reflect the tariffs imposed on it by the other operators.
