Ugandan Minister of Works and Transport Eng. John Nasasira has announced that nearly two million Ugandans own mobile phones, Daily Monitor reported on Tuesday.

Nasasira said the number of mobile phones subscribers had grown from 3,000 in 1996 to 1,938,000 in March 2006, while the number of fixed phone lines have grown from 45,145 in 1996 to 108,000 now.

"Even the number of pay phones has increased from 1,260 to 10, 925 in the same period," Nasasira noted while handing over the communications department to Ham Mulira, the new minister of Information and Communications and Technology in Kampala on Friday.

He also mentioned that the number of licensed television stations have increased from two to 22 and 145 private FM radio stations have been registered in the same period.

Source: Xinhua