Uganda's telecom sector had registered a growth in turnover worth 810 million U.S. dollars since January 2004, the state-owned New Vision reported on Tuesday.

The report from the country's ministry of information and communication technology was quoted as saying private investment in the sector since January 2004 was estimated to be 180 million dollars.

"Tele-density has improved from 4.2 percent in 2004 to 6.5 percent in 2006. There is a point of presence of telecom services in 745 of the 926 sub-counties," said Information Minister Ham Mulira.

He said over 10,000 public pay phones had been installed and the internet market, although still small, had developed fast. Five courier service providers had been issued licenses since 2002, bringing the total number to 22.

By March last year, MTN Uganda, a private South African telecommunication company had its network in 628 out of the 926 sub-counties, an equivalent of 68 percent network presence.

He said Uganda telecom's GSM network had reached 338 sub- counties with a mobile switching capacity of 300,000 subscribers while in terms of fixed lines, at least 123 sub-counties were covered.

Source: Xinhua