Communication changing lives: the communication and information technology revolution has reached far and wide, and as Bamuturaki Musinguzi finds out, it is now touching rural Uganda.

Standing at his residence in Kiyindi Landing Site in Mukono District, Uganda, Ali Kadudu tells me he has earned a lot from the telephone he is holding in his hand. "I have bought a lot of things; like a plot of land, a bicycle, selling of used cloths on top of sending my five children to school." Thirty-three-year-old Kadudu is his village's operator of VillagePhone, a scheme run by the MTN telephone company which allows rural people to make affordable telephone calls. He is quick to sing the praises of VillagePhone, complimenting the scheme by saying it is a good service that allows him to earn a modest living. His responsibility of operating the phone has supplemented his income by generating enough additional wealth to send his children to school.

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A joint venture between MTN Uganda and Grameen Foundation USA, VillagePhone extends telecommunications access to rural villages across Uganda. In partnership with 18 microfinance institutions, it creates opportunities for poor rural individuals to become VillagePhone operators (VPO). Active in 49 of Uganda's 56 districts, the initiative had 1,500 operators and village phone lines as of March this year. The phone provides special airtime tariffs at Ush.300, around U$17 cents, compared to Ush390 ($22 cents) of mobile cellular phones and enables the operators to provide affordable telecommunications services to residents in their village.

The programme's general manager, Richard Mwami, says that in Masindi District when a group of maize farmers gather their crop they have enough combined produce to transport to the market. The phone is used to call in a truck, saving money on transportation costs. "VillagePhone is also used to access MTN services to see the current price of maize in various markets. With this knowledge, the farmers can negotiate a fair price for their crop," says Mwami. He adds that in rural areas people are now able to make a call without having to travel many kilometres to the nearest town. Instead, they can simply go to their community VPO.

Such projects can be established in areas where electricity is unavailable and where the MTN network can only be accessed with a booster antenna. Mwami says the benefits are many for both the village operators and the users. "We have a lot of testimonies with our operators able to pay school fees for their children and buy plots of land. People's lives have changed where communication never existed before. The whole village owns the phone and the people are very interested in the product because it's a service," he says. The phone is programmed to include the telephone numbers of important people in the area like medical doctors and MPs, and the prices of commodities to empower the farmers in their bargaining with the produce buyers.

According to Karl Skaar, managing director of UnoPhone, a similar project in Uganda, people who use the phone benefit by having easy access to modern communications. "They do not need to spend a lot of money to travel in order to find a telephone, they have one around themselves. The operators make money and some have revealed that they had never made such money in their lives. Our clients make an average of $1 per day. Microfinance institutions benefit by attracting new clients who are able to pay their loans," Skaar says. Besides the creation of employment, Skaar notes that there is also the acquisition of business skills and principles, which help VPO to promote sustainability in business, and attain modern communication skills.

UnoPhone Uganda Limited has invested over $1m in its initiative and currently operates in 23 districts. It enables the VPO to acquire phone equipment through a leasing arrangement with microfinance institutions. "Recognising the difficulties faced by the rural communities accessing communication services, our target group is the rural residents including both women and men." Skaar says. "The reaction to the telephone technology is positive all over in our areas of operation right from the local people to the local leaders. They all talk about communication as a very important part of developing their area of the country."

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In one village in Kayunga District, people gather in the evening in front of a shop with a VillagePhone to listen to FM radio shows. The VPO has the phone numbers of all the radio stations posted on the wall and villages use the phone to call into the radio shows and make their voices heard nationwide. "When two thieves were identified in a village near Mbale District, villagers approached Malma Nulia who operates a small pharmacy with a VillagePhone. Using her phone, they called the district police who arrived in time to apprehend them," adds Mwami.

Participatory poverty assessment studies in Uganda have shown that ownership of either a mobile phone or a fixed phone was reported by about 5% of households in the country. "Asset ownership is one of the proxy indicators for welfare measurement," the report notes.

Uganda is among several African countries that have moved away from state monopolies of telecommunications and media and is using information technology for socio-economic development, and advanced national communication planning is already in place. Tele-centre models have emerged along with increasing operations by cellular phone providers. In addition to several independent broadcasters, internet service providers have opened up to private competition and internet access costs have fallen.

As a result of liberalisation, several FM radio stations have sprung up, some with wide rural coverage and a large number of programmes broadcast in local languages. Television has also been opened to the market. A variety of online initiatives including government websites, media publishing, e-commerce and live broadcasts such as Radio Simba, are also in place.

A 1998 UNDP Human Development Report cited that: "In spite of the changes and growth in telecommunications and the media in Uganda, very few people have access to the services in the industry."

According to the Uganda Communication Commission (UCC), communications sector comparative figures for the period September 2002 to September 2004, there were 55,453 fixed telephone lines in 2002, which rose to 71,568 last year. The UCC, which was created in 1997 and mandated to oversee development of the telecoms industry, has set ambitious targets to extend telephone services to rural areas. Its corporate affairs manager, Fred Otunnu, says: "While census figures may be true as by 2002, a lot has since been realised in terms of providing communication services in terms of accessibility and availability throughout the country."

The chairman of the Uganda Broadcasting Council, Godfrey Mutabazi, says the council has always impressed on the government that the electronic media is the most effective and easily accessible mode of communication to the public. "We have always insisted that we should be like other developed countries which have used electronic media as means of development for channelling all government policies and other important information to the public," he says.