Socio Economic indicators as well as education are clear determinants of how people access and use communication technologies in Uganda.

Chart 1

• Even with radio access, there is a 20 percentage point difference between the low SES and high SES group. In addition only 62 percent of those with no education said they have a radio at home, while 90 percent of those in the “university” group had access. These levels of access remained more or less constant in the 2007 and 2008 surveys.
• In comparing levels of household access, television was the only other traditional media that was a distant second in Uganda (see chart 1). Here, SES played a major dividing role in levels if access. Access steeply rose at each increasing level of SES.
• Other devices such as video recorders, satellite TV/DSTC/Cable TV, etc are yet to become easily accessible for all SES levels.

Chart 2

• Mobile phones are the most accessible ICT device in Uganda; but here we see SES again playing a decisive role in access (chart 2).
• Internet access at home is rare even for Ugandans with the highest SES; even they were more likely to access it at a cyber café than at home.

Traditional Media Use

• Weekly television viewing is increasingly determined by both SES and education levels. This divide, and indeed the viewership levels have remained largely unchanged between 2007 and 2007.

• SES and education affects newspaper weekly readership; although education (which determined literacy) played a more direct role.

Communal Media Consumption in Uganda (Radio, Television)

• For both radio and television, we see greater proportions of respondents across all SES levels claiming weekly use (chart 3B) than those who said they had household access (chart 1).
• In fact more than double the respondents in the low and lower middle SES groups who owned TV sets at home, had watched TV in the previous week. This could signify a more communal watching approach to television for lower SES groups. This disparity between TV access and weekly use reduced as SES increased-signifying lesser communal viewing as SES increased.
• For Radio: While around 70 percent of low SES respondents had radio access at home (chart 1 above), close to 90 percent of them had listened to radio in the previous week. In addition, the respondents in the lower middle SES group14 percentage points more likely to listen to radio than have access to one at home. This disparity between radio access and weekly use reduced as SES increased-signifying lesser communal viewing as SES increased.
• Thirty three percent of low SES respondents and close to 36 percent of middle SES respondents (lower and upper middle) were also likely to listen to radio at another household. For respondents with high SES, the proportions were slightly lower-once again signifying lesser communal listening.
• In addition, 20 percent of low and lower SES respondents listen to radio at a public place; making it a communal medium and perhaps the most important way of reaching Ugandans.

New Media Use

• In general, education and SES act as major determinants of entry into the ICT world.
• Overall internet use was affected equally by education and SES whereas mobile use was more intensely correlated with one’s education levels than SES (table 1, orange highlighted section).

• SES and education also affect the range of services and activities that respondents have been using the particular ICT for. For instance those with higher education (and literacy levels) are more likely to use the internet for reading the newspaper online or sending an SMS.
• The same is true for respondents in the high SES categories, who also show higher email use and listen to radio on their mobile phones more intensively than their lower SES holding counterparts. In fact higher SESs, which are associated with higher SES, also grant our respondents greater chances of possessing their own mobile phones (see access section above).
• The significance of the barriers determined by SES and education is also evident in the unchanging disparity between groups shown between 2007 and 2008 (not shown in chart). In fact the divides between those with lesser education/SESs and those with higher education/SESs have remained fairly status quo. The only exception to this was the doubling of respondents with no education who made a call in the previous month using their mobile phone (see green highlighted box in table 1).
• In addition, even those high internet users and high mobile phone with high SESs and education; have not experienced any significant growth between 2007 and 2008. The only exception was a 10 percentage point increase for university educated respondents listening to radio on their mobile phones (see green highlighted box in table 1).