|
Uganda Communications
Uganda's telecommunications system provided fair
service for
city dwellers and in 1990 was undergoing improvements
after a
period of neglect during the early 1980s. Long-distance
communications went via a radio-relay system centered in
Kampala,
and a high-capacity radio-relay link with 960 channels
connected
the Ugandan capital with Nairobi. A satellite ground
station at
Mpoma near Kampala had two antennas, one working with the
International Telecommunications Satellite Corporation
(Intelsat)
Atlantic Ocean satellite and the other with the Intelsat
Indian
Ocean satellite. This ground station provided excellent
international telephone and television transmissions and
permitted international direct dialing both into and out
of the
country. At the end of 1990, Uganda counted 61,600
telephones
nationwide, or 2.6 telephones per 100 inhabitants.
Radio transmissions originated in Kampala and other
large
towns, but broadcasts were received in all areas of the
country
along with programs from neighboring countries. Kampala
had six
of the country's ten amplitude modulation (AM) stations,
which
broadcast in English, French, Swahili, and several local
languages and used both medium and shortwave frequencies.
Nine
television stations in the larger cities operated in the
afternoons and evenings with programs in English, Swahili,
and
Luganda.
In 1990 several improvements were underway which, when
completed, would significantly upgrade the
telecommunications
system. A new fiber-optic link was being built from the
international switching center in the capital to the
satellite
ground station, and additional telephone exchanges were
under
construction in Kampala and Kabale.
Data as of December 1990
|
