To hold a huge meeting and as sensitive as Chogm, you have to get your communications system right or else you risk a global embarrassment. Less than six months to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, this is one of Uganda's daunting tasks.

Today, Uganda boasts of more than 2million cellular telephone subscribers, 17 Internet providers and three cellular service providers, but is this adequate for Chogm communication needs? Not quite, experts say.

According to a confidential Chogm Information Communication and Technology draft plan, in less than six months, all venues hosting Chogm events must have increased bandwidth of 4Mbps minimum, the country will have to upgrade its cellular capacity through the various service providers. The country will also have to up its Internet speeds lest Chogm week becomes characterised by phone congestion and slow Internet speed, which will affect the communication flow.

According to the draft plan, Uganda is to set up an Information, Communication and Technology infrastructure (ICT) for Chogm. It will be of international standards, which will cost at least Shs5b.
The communication network will have to be able to support transmission of real time data; voice, video and multimedia data.

With over 3000 guests expected for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting later this year, the ICT platform that will be set up will have to cater for all the international delegates and the already existing local population.
Therefore, Uganda will need voice communication, data communication capabilities, broadcasting facilities and access to network facilities at every Chogm events' location for the current approximately 2.3million local subscribers and over 3000 delegates.

Chogm ICT needs
According to the draft, the existing facilities will have to support landline and mobile voice communication for both the local subscribers as well the visitors who will have come. International voice calls are projected to increase before and during Chogm. Therefore, the plan recommends that particular emphasis be put on the capacity for international voice calls.

The plan also advises that there should be data communication capabilities from the service providers. These include Internet access (56kbps per delegate) and support of data services on the local telecom networks to enable delegates to use their portable devices on the local provider's networks.
There will also be need for better broadcasting facilities particularly for the media centre, which will be the reference point for information.
Access to network facilities at every Chogm event will be vital because participants will have to be able to communicate wherever they will be in Uganda.

Extra bandwidth
One of the most important requirements for any international meeting as big as Chogm is bandwidth. Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be passed along a communications channel in a given period of time. The bigger the amount of bandwidth, the faster real time data, voice and multi-media data can be transmitted.

However, questions have been raised on the capacity of Uganda's bandwidth. According to an expert source within the Chogm ICT committee who preferred anonymity, "The bandwidth capacity on the ground is only 60% of what is needed". Therefore, the 40 percent will have to be procured. The plan recommends that at least 4mbps of bandwidth be available for the various meetings at each of the 8 venues bringing the total of bandwidth to 32Mbps.

"The bandwidth is important because there will be live broadcast from the airport when the delegates arrive,various sessions and other activities which requires extra bandwidth. Live broadcasts are the biggest consumers of bandwidth," the technical expert said.

Therefore, all venues for the meetings will also have to scale up their Internet bandwidth. "The hotel venues have insufficient internet bandwidth that shall have to be upgraded in preparation for Chogm to the required 4Mbps," the plan states.

However, the available Internet bandwidth that the three service providers (MTN, Celtel and Utl) have is 152Mbps with an average utilisation of 50%, according to the plan.
The plan says that the service providers have assured the organizers that they will be scaling up the bandwidth capacity as and when it is requested.

However, there is optimism that Uganda will have all the bandwidth it needs come Chogm.
"It will be available because there are several multi-layered approaches that will be used to get the bandwidth." the source said.

Among the various approaches mentioned by the source is the laying of optic fibre cables which is going on, via satellite link or microwave links to act as back up for the optic cables.
The plan also recommends that, "bandwidth should be procured as a service from one of the local firms as opposed to self provisioning via satellite connectivity to provide better quality of service.
According to the procurement plan, the bandwidth needed will cost $80,000 (shs137m) for all the venues excluding the media centre.

Upgrading
According to the expert source, Uganda's cellular capacity is very low. "The cellular service providers' Base Transmission Units (BTUs) are at a maximum causing congestion. The chosen service provider might have to put up extra BTUs at the Chogm venues".

By the end of 2006, al the 80 districts in Uganda had network coverage with more than 2million subscribers.
However, according to the plan, "the available capacity for international calls by the three service providers is sufficient for all Chogm delegates and local needs.

It however raises concerns on the quality of service offered by MTN, which it, says is currently congested. "MTN is apparently congested…The current quality of service offered by MTN is an issue of concern. Data collected from MTN Uganda indicates a utilisation level of 80% for their local capacity."

It adds that Utl and Celtel have enough capacity but adds that if MTN upgrades, all three providers' network coverage will be sufficient for both data and voice countrywide. In March,MTN announced that it was investing $50m to upgrade its transmission network and expand its traffic carrying capacity to support 10 million subscribers.
Measures are to be taken to ensure that the approved providers have sufficient capacity for all services like GSM network, calling facilities provisioned at various events and activities' sites.

Roaming capacity
Roaming is the ability for a cellular customer to automatically make and receive voice calls, send and receive data, or access other services when traveling outside the geographical coverage area of the home network, by means of using a visited network.

As far as roaming is concerned, 98% of the 53 Commonwealth countries have roaming agreements with Uganda and vice versa. Therefore, the majority of the delegates will have roaming facilities.

However, of the 53 members of Commonwealth, seven countries are not covered by the agreement referred to above. "This means that delegates from these countries will not have access to the facility. Provision of pay phones, international calling cards sufficient phone booths and direct lines for international calls at all events sites will cater for delegates needs from these countries," the plan recommends

Blackberry technology
The Blackberry is a wireless handheld device which supports e-mail, mobile telephone, text messaging, Internet faxing, web browsing and other wireless information services.
According to a source, one of the requirements for this Chogm is that delegates who use Blackberries should be able to use them while in Uganda. Currently, the Blackberry is not supported by any of the service providers.

"As soon as the Secretary General of the Commonwealth comes to Uganda in June for the 8th Women Commonwealth Women's Affairs Ministers Meeting (8WAMM), he should be able to use his Blackberry," a source said.

Black Berry services run on GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), which MTN, Celtel and Utl offer, but whoever will be the official service provider will need to procure Black Berry licenses before June.