KAMPALA, UGANDA – Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa has urged regulators in the telecommunications industry to prioritize quality of service, telecom service penetration in rural areas, and lower costs of interconnectivity and international roaming.
Presiding over the closing ceremony of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Global Symposium for Regulators at Speke Resort Munyonyo, Tayebwa emphasized the importance of regulators working together to ensure access to quality telecommunications services, especially in rural areas.
“As regulators, you have a critical role to play in ensuring that our people, especially in rural areas, have access to quality telecommunications services,” Tayebwa said. “I urge you to work together to regulate the artificial intelligence industry and mitigate its risks. We must ensure that technology serves humanity, not the other way around.”
Tayebwa also stressed the need for regulators to protect children from harmful online content, such as pornography, which he believes adds no value to the economy but rather destroys families and children. “Such sites should be blocked, and education sites zero-rated to enable our learners from rural poor families to access them for free,” he added.
The Deputy Speaker commended the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) and the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MoICT) for hosting the most attended ITU GSR ever, with a record over 900 delegates. “I commend the UCC and MoICT for a job well done. This symposium has shown the world Uganda’s potential in the telecommunications sector.”
The event brought together industry thought leaders and private sector chief regulatory officers to share experiences and proposals with regulators on the complex regulatory and business landscape of digital ecosystems.
The meeting, convened by the Industry Advisory Group on Development Issues and Private Sector Chief Regulatory Officers (IAGDI-CRO), discussed key topics such as digital infrastructure development, implementation of regulatory “sandboxes,” strategies to enable high-speed connectivity, regulation of the future, including new domains like AI, and technologies for the future.
These discussions were reflected in an Outcome Statement presented at the GSR-24 closing ceremony by Bocar Ba, IAGDI-CRO Chairman and CEO of Samena Telecommunications Council.
The conference also featured a session of the Network of Women (NoW) in ITU’s Telecommunication Development Sector at GSR-24, which explored mechanisms for greater participation of women in ICT-related fields and addressed the leadership gender gap in the ICT sector.
The Africa-BB-Maps project, supported by the European Commission, was launched at GSR-24 to establish broadband mapping systems in 11 African countries: Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The project has a budget of EUR 15 million over four years.
The Digital Skills Forum, a flagship event to discuss the most pressing needs to ensure universal digital skills, will take place in Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain, from September 17-19, 2024.
The event is organized by the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau and hosted by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the Kingdom of Bahrain.
The Communications, Space and Technology Commission of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced that it will host the Global Symposium for Regulators in 2025.
