Ugandans face slow internet as lockdown increases traffic

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Ugandans are having to put up with slower internet in the coronavirus (COVID-19) lock down as operators face the surge in usage.

Several people Uganda Radio Network (URN) spoke to said they had noticed their internet speeds slowdown when one compares the period before the lock down and now during the lock down.

Janipher Ochow, a resident of Kira and uses the internet for work, leisure and personal study, said “when the lock down set in, the speeds kept getting worse and worse.” She said she has had to adjust her expectations of the quality of internet she expects at this particular time.

Ochow’s experience rhymes with Mark Muhumuza’s, another internet user also working from home. He said he has decided to use several service providers exchanging them to capitailise on whoever has faster speeds at a particular time. He said he has noticed all them have had their services speed drop.

He says he has been “interchanging to see who gives faster speed” but some big providers’ speeds are horrible.

The surge in usage is mainly concentrated in residential areas, according to industry players. This is because while many people stay away from work places, they are hauled up in their rooms streaming or browsing the internet all day long. Ugandans are confined at home as a measure to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Some internet providers had boosted of unused capacity that could be deployed in the event of a surge in usage – this is yet to be seen during this period. There is a visible surge in the complaints over internet speeds on most providers’ twitter handles.

Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has said it was aware of the slowing down on internet speeds. Ibrahim Bbosa, the UCC director of public and corporate affairs, said the regulator had not issued any provider with a warning or caution because it had noticed the unprecedented surge in use of the internet services.

Bbosa said the operators were facing some challenges and the regulator was working with them to address them.

Airtel Uganda told us in a statement that it has “has significantly scaled up its network capacity, coverage and quality to meet the growing demands for high usage of voice and data network.”

In a phone conversation, Sumin Namaganda, the Airtel Uganda spokesperson, said right now the usage is concentrated in some areas, especially residential, putting pressure on the area.

According to UCC’s consumer report for September 2019, internet users in Uganda had grown to 23 million.

Those browsing using mobile phones had grown from 14.3 million in 2018 to 15.2 million by September 2019, a sizable jump in less than a year. It is not clear whether these numbers have bulged during this time.

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URN