{"id":15875,"date":"2012-10-25T20:03:10","date_gmt":"2012-10-25T18:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/10\/uganda-says-counterfeit-phone-purge-wont-stop-mobile-growth\/"},"modified":"2012-10-25T20:03:10","modified_gmt":"2012-10-25T18:03:10","slug":"uganda-says-counterfeit-phone-purge-wont-stop-mobile-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/uganda-says-counterfeit-phone-purge-wont-stop-mobile-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Uganda says counterfeit phone purge won&#8217;t stop mobile growth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Matt Smith<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">DUBAI<\/span> Oct 25 (Reuters) &#8211; A crackdown in Uganda on<br \/>\ncounterfeit mobile phones because of safety issues will not slow<br \/>\nsubscriber growth in the country, where mobile phone use jumped<br \/>\nto 60 percent this year.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Ruhakana Rugunda, Uganda&#8217;s Minister of Information and<br \/>\nCommunications Technology, said the clampdown, which will see<br \/>\nfake handsets cut off from mobile networks from July 2013, was<br \/>\nneeded to protect users.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have no problems about cleaning our system so we can<br \/>\nbuild our communications system on solid foundations,&#8221; Rugunda<br \/>\ntold Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Dubai.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>About 30 percent of the East African country&#8217;s estimated 17<br \/>\nmillion mobile phones are counterfeits, according to study cited<br \/>\nby the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC).<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Unlike phones from recognised manufacturers, counterfeit<br \/>\nphones are not tested to meet safety standards and so could<br \/>\nexpose users to dangerous levels of radio frequencies as well as<br \/>\nbattery leaks.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Call quality may also suffer because the handsets are not<br \/>\nconfigured correctly.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>These fears prompted a region-wide crackdown, the UCC said,<br \/>\nwith similar initiatives in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Uganda subscribers must register their sim card with the<br \/>\nregulator by March 1 next year, which will then pair these with<br \/>\nthe phones they are used in. Counterfeit phones will be<br \/>\ndisconnected between July and December 2013.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Matt Smith DUBAI Oct 25 (Reuters) &#8211; A crackdown in Uganda on counterfeit mobile phones because of safety issues will not slow subscriber growth in the country, where mobile phone use jumped to 60 percent this year. Ruhakana Rugunda, Uganda&#8217;s Minister of Information and Communications Technology, said the clampdown, which will see fake handsets [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-15875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}