Mara Group, the company behind the Kensington Luxury houses in Kampala, applied for a telecommunication license to operate in Uganda, said Uganda Communication Commission (UCC), writes the local publication The Monitor.
The company seeks access in the telecom industry, to provide voice and data telecom services to Ugandans as Mara Telecoms Uganda Limited. The brand will operate under local technology company Raps Uganda Limited and target Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania in the long run.
The commissions has opened the public discussions for the next two weeks regarding the application. “UCC shall grant a license to the applicants if, after the expiry of the period no comments have been made”, said a notice from UCC, the regulatory body of the communications industry.
The Mara Group was founded by British-born Ashish Thakkar, 29, the group’s Managing Director. The company spans its activities on four continents, in various sectors including information technology, real estate, financial services, hospitality, energy, packaging, retail and media.
In Uganda, the group has developed Riley Media, Riley Packaging and Raps Uganda brands, while internationally the group became famous with the construction of the landmark 36 floor Kensington Krystal in Dubai.
The group allso and owns other businesses in South Africa, Hong Kong, Kenya, the United Arab Emirates (Dubai) and the United Kingdom.
Uganda has eight operational telecommunication service providers so far, including MTN Uganda, Warid Telecom, Orange, Zain Uganda, Uganda Telecom, Smile, TMP, and I-Telecom, with over 10 million mobile and fixed mobile phone users, according to the UCC.
It is reported that there are 60 licensed telecommunication operators in the country, half of them owning the license targeted by Mara Telecom.
