Uganda's telecommunications system provided fair service for city dwellers and in 1990 was undergoing improvements after a period of neglect during the early 1980s. Long-distance communications went via a radio-relay system centered in Kampala, and a high-capacity radio-relay link with 960 channels connected the Ugandan capital with Nairobi. A satellite ground station at Mpoma near Kampala had two antennas, one working with the International Telecommunications Satellite Corporation (Intelsat) Atlantic Ocean satellite and the other with the Intelsat Indian Ocean satellite. This ground station provided excellent international telephone and television transmissions and permitted international direct dialing both into and out of the country. At the end of 1990, Uganda counted 61,600 telephones nationwide, or 2.6 telephones per 100 inhabitants.

Radio transmissions originated in Kampala and other large towns, but broadcasts were received in all areas of the country along with programs from neighboring countries. Kampala had six of the country's ten amplitude modulation (AM) stations, which broadcast in English, French, Swahili, and several local languages and used both medium and shortwave frequencies. Nine television stations in the larger cities operated in the afternoons and evenings with programs in English, Swahili, and Luganda.

In 1990 several improvements were underway which, when completed, would significantly upgrade the telecommunications system. A new fiber-optic link was being built from the international switching center in the capital to the satellite ground station, and additional telephone exchanges were under construction in Kampala and Kabale.

Data as of December 1990