The Parliament of Uganda has unceremoniously ended its relationship with Airtel Uganda as its internet service provider.
The Legislative body has instead opted for their arch rivals, MTN Uganda, with the new changes causing disruptions into access to internet by both MPs and staff to Parliament.
During yesterday’s plenary sitting, Speaker Rebecca Kadaga asked MPs to endure the divorce settlement, saying the internet services will be settled after the marriage with MTN blossoms.
“We have changed the service providers for our internet services, I know that some problems have been met on the internet and accessing Parliamentary documents and emails,” Kadaga said.
She added: “This is because there is a change taking place between Airtel and MTN and I hope that in a short time, we will be able to go back to ordinary services.”
In a related development, Kadaga told MPs that they will be paying their Over the Top Services (OTT) after the contract with MTN raised a heated debate in public.
“But I want to reaffirm that OTT will not be paid by Government, you will pay it yourself and I told the clerk to cancel that part of contract because it was weird, we shall pay our own OTT,” Kadaga said.
It should be recalled that the Parliamentary Commission had contracted telecom giants, MTN Uganda Limited to provide OTT for MPs devices after edging out their business rivals Airtel Uganda and Africell whose bids were rejected at preliminary stages in the procurement process.
Parliament passed into law the Excise Duty Amendment Bill 2018 on 30th May 2018, that saw Government slap Shs200 daily levy on over the top (OTT) social media like WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter that would see Government raise Shs284bn.
