KAMPALA, April 29 (Reuters) - Ugandan President Yoweri

Museveni said on Tuesday that he had a "productive meeting" with

the representatives of tech billionaire Elon Musk's Starlink,

which is looking to establish a presence in the East African

country.

A unit of SpaceX, the satellite internet company is rapidly

expanding its services on the African continent and is already

live in more than a dozen countries. It was granted licences by

Somalia and Lesotho earlier this month.

"I appreciate their commitment to providing low-cost

internet in hard-to-reach areas and establishing a presence in

Uganda. They are welcome," Museveni said on X.

Ugandan consumers have long complained about the high cost

and unreliability of domestic internet services, which some

blame on the lack of sufficient competition in the market.

It was unclear if Starlink had already formally applied for

a license to operate in Uganda. A spokesperson for the sector

regulator Uganda Communications Commision (UCC) did not respond

to a Reuters request for a comment.

A unit of South African telecom giant MTN group is

the dominant player in the East African country's data market

and chiefly competes with a unit of India's Bharti Airtel

.