The state of digital in Uganda report for 2026 shows that 11.4 million individuals were using the Internet in Ugan- da at the end of 2025, putting Internet penetration in the country at 22 percent, nearly one in every four Ugandans on the Internet.
Data from the United Nations indicates that the population of Uganda stood at 51.7 million in October 2025 and 71.8 per- cent lived in rural areas.
According to a Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) press release issued last week, there are 4,000 unlicensed pro- viders offering public WiFi services across the country. The Commission is urging all illegal operators to immediately cease all operations and take down all unlicensed routers and WiFi hotspot apparatus.
In spite of public outcry from affected users, operators and the people's representatives in Parliament, the Commission has not offered an amnesty for the unlicensed operators to regularise their business.
High-handed measures, with no ef- forts to bring the unlicensed provid- ers into the fold may only serve to drive them underground, with no alternatives for some of the clients
they serve currently. The commission should investigate why members of the public are resorting to unlicensed providers, and it may find its answers in high costs or reels of bureaucracy among the existing licensed provid-
ers.
There has long been a public outcry over the cost of data that has largely
gone unaddressed by the Commis- sion. This may be the time for an hon- est national discussion on the cost of consuming Internet and the factors that lead to the exclusion of marginal- ised and economically disadvantaged communities, whom the unlicensed retailers have somehow managed to reach.
Far from being merely punitive, UCC's measures against the unli- censed, though based on law, should take into account the fragile statistics around Internet pene- tration in Uganda and strive to be inclusive. We need to devise ways of bringing the unlicensed into the economy and giving incentives to those who have endeavoured to spread connec tivity, albeit employing measures not strictly within the law.
It is worth a conversation to determine why a significant sec- tion of the public has chosen to acquire their Internet connec- tions through unrecognised hotspots. Decommissioning the existing Wifi hotspots does not necessarily mean those who used them will seek out the licensed Internet providers.
There should also be mass sensitisation on alternatives to the unlicensed hotspots. Give the public affordable access to the Internet using licensed providers and the problem of black market providers will no longer be a big concern.