The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has announced plans to transition all radio stations currently operating on the outdated FM spectrum to digital audio broadcasting.
This is aimed at improving service quality, which has been compromised under the existing system, it says.
Fred Otunnu, the director for corporate affairs at the UCC said, the FM spectrum is congested that new applicants cannot be assigned radio frequencies unless a consignee is removed from the spectrum.
Otunnu added that because of the congestion on the FM frequency, many radio stations are experiencing interference in their signals.
“We have done trials which were successful albeit with a few challenges, but we are moving to the next stage, We have also done public consultations and have got the feedback, we are moving to policy level. You know that FM is exhaustible, many jurisdictions in Africa have embraced digital audio broadcasting,” he said.
During the Car-free day festival organized by Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) recently, lrene Ochwo, who is supervises the city digital radio project said together with UCC, they are setting up a digital sound broadcasting station because the FM frequency is no longer available in Kampala.
Ochwo added that they are giving out free digital audio broadcasting receivers to listeners in Kampala to give feedback about the signal.
“Digital broadcast is different from FM. We want someone from Kansanga to tell us whether they are receiving a clear signal. With FM, when you reach a valley, the sound quality deteriorates, but when you use DAB |Digital Audio Broadcasting] and it encounters an obstacle, it cuts off immediately and when there is no more interruption, it comes back immediately,” she said.
She added that they are assisting in researching signal strength across different areas of Kampala, identifying both weak and strong spots. This research will help the UCC develop a framework for implementing the project effectively.
Currenty, KCCAS Radio Kampala, Nation Media Group-Ugandas 93.3 KFM and 14 other stations are legally online.
She said in Europe, the platform can take a limitless number of stations and in the last meeting they held with UCC, as many as 60 stations had applied for registration on the platform.
Otunnu said there are currently 250 radio stations registered with the UCC, and every year, they receive numerous new applications. He expressed confidence that the new platform will be able to accommodate all the incoming applicants.
The development of radio communication in Uganda, like in other African countries, has followed technological advancements. It began with transmissions on Amplitude Modulation (AM), Medium Wave (MW) and Short Wave (SW) channels, which were eventually phased out with the explosive introduction of Frequency Modulation (FM) alongside the liberalization of media broadcasting in the 1990s. Since then, Ugandans have primarily relied on FM frequencies, with online streaming only emerging as a significant player more recently.