For years now, there has been word going around about the discomfort of MTN Uganda with the inability of UTL (Uganda Telecom) to pay up for the interconnection fees due to them. UTL is Uganda's oldest telecoms operator and is the now privatised form of the former Uganda Posts and Telecommunications Corporation while MTN Uganda is the country's leading Telecoms provider in subscriber base.
While some partial resolutions may have been achieved previously, the situation has finally hit rock bottom with MTN announcing that it will terminate any form of interconnection with UTL on the 14th of March 2011, five days away.

What is in it for the customers of MTN and UTL? With statistics indicating that 7 out of 10 calls in Uganda are made to the MTN network, it implies that UTL customers will be greatly crippled in their communication. However, MTN customers will also experience some inconvenience being unable to call UTL subscribers.
For many it will be hard to switch numbers overnight as a result of this failure, but considering that many phone users do have an alternative number with another provider, they may find ways of circumventing this problem.

“UTL has continuously defaulted on the settlement of these payments. Interconnection fees are pre-paid by customers, but UTL has failed to justify why they are not remitting these payments,” said Khumalo, MTN Uganda CEO. “Continuing to operate along this model makes interconnection fees a business risk rather than an enabler, as the debt continues to grow,” he added.

If indeed this decision is implemented by MTN, then the bigger winners will be Airtel, Warid and Orange, as subscribers on the conflicting networks will channel their communication through the alternative networks available in order to reach their intended targets.
This being the first case of its kind in Uganda, the industry watchers are eagerly looking on to see how this unfolds.