Telecommunication companies and other dealers in the communications sector have been ordered to shutdown internet, mobile money transactions and calls a day to the polls Eagle Online has learnt.
Uganda will go to polls on January 14 and like the previous elections where internet was switched off, this too there will be internet as well.
In a letter to one of the players, government lists WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook and WTF as some of the key items that will have to be switched off.
“Mobile data services (Country wide)-Excluding NON-GSM, Mobile data service (Regional cluster) Excluding NON-GSM, Mobile data services (Country wide) including NON-GSM, and mobile data (Regional cluster) including NON-GSM” reads the directive which Eagle Online has seen.
Other services that have been listed are “Voice, SMS and Data (country wide and full network shutdown, Voice, SMS and Data (Network shutdown on Regional cluster). Data (country wide excluding dedicated APN, Data (Regional cluster excluding dedicated APN and finally MOMO services both country wide and regional cluster”.
This is not the first-time government is shutting down communication systems like it has down so on the eve of the previous elections. When faced with challenges Ugandan authorities will resort to switching off internet.