An ATC Tower
Smile Communications Uganda Limited, has apologised to its customers for what it says, was a prolonged outage, saying that the reasons for the outage were “beyond its control”.
Smile, which launched in Uganda in the 4th quarter of 2009, pioneering 4G LTE services in Uganda and East Africa, as well as the first to introduce Voice over LTE (VoLTE) services in Africa, has been off since January 31, 2022 due to what we now understand from the statement is due to commercial dispute between the telco and American Tower Company (ATC) Uganda, the tower infrastructure provider.
In a statement issued last week, Smile said it “deeply regrets the prolonged service outage” and the “inconvenience caused”.
In the statement signed off by Mr. Silvernus Okoth, the Ag. Country Manager, Smile Communications Uganda Limited, the telco said that it “unequivocally” attributes the outage to “the actions of American Towers Corporation, the dominant provider of telecommunications passive infrastructure services in Uganda”.
“Smile holds them solely accountable for this regrettable situation,” the statement reads in part.
Smile also blames the telco for operating in a “coercive manner, displaying a blatant disregard for the law, its license obligations, industry best practices”.
In the statement, the telecom also said it was it would, with “unwavering determination” pursue justice and remained steadfast in its pursuit of a fair and just outcome.
