PERFORMANCE OF THE TELECOMMUNICATION COMPANIES IN UGANDA DURING COVID – 19 TIMES

Abstract

As most of the countries globally battle with the effects of COVID-19, telecommunication companies have emerged
as critical entities in providing connection between businesses and people. In Uganda, the telecommunication
companies recorded a 3.3% year on year growth between the period of Sept 2019 and Sept 2020 in the subscription
level despite a 3 million decline in subscribers between March 2020 and June 2020 attributed to the outbreak of
COVID-19. Therefore, this study presents a comparative analysis to ascertain the performance of
telecommunication companies before COVID-19 in 2019 and during COVID-19 in 2020. The comparative study
utilized a descriptive design with only quantitative approaches. The study was based on only secondary data sources
which involved online document review from Uganda Communications Commission (UCC). The documents
reviewed included market performance quarterly reports published by UCC in 2021 and 2019. The analysis
involved descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, and correlation analysis. An independent sample t-test was
used to find out if the observations on the variables were significantly different between the two periods and
Pearson’s correlation test was used to establish the strength, direction, and the significance of the relationship
between the variables. Results indicated that there was a significant difference in the number of Fixed line
subscriptions between 2019 and 2020 (mean difference=70147 subscriptions, P-value (0.0429) <0.05). The study
concluded that there was a remarkable improvement in the performance of telecommunication companies during the
period of COVID-19 despite some challenges. During the period of 2020, most of the telecommunication companies
in Uganda registered an increase in mobile subscription, growth in fixed and mobile internet subscription, and
increase in smartphone and featured phone users among others. The study suggests that the telecommunication
companies should lower the cost of their services like cost of Mobile data and voice bundles during the period when
government imposes lockdown.