Africell, MTN, Airtel, Smile, UTL & Lycamobile Internet Settings

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Eager to access internet on your brand new iPhone or Android phone? Need to set up configurations so that you can start your browsing journey and maybe texting via WhatsApp? Take a seat!

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Many phone users in Uganda tend to find it difficult to set up their mobile devices to access internet. This gap has bridged an opportunity for small mobile phone shops and airtime selling points to exploit these “naïve” phone users, which service comes at a cost of about 5k (in some places 10k)

Many of these phone users have no idea that they can actually configure internet settings with just a swipe of their smartphones, and BOOM – they are browsing the internet.

From any Internet service provider, you are assured of getting internet settings fashioned for your phone’s exact model. Your service provider might be able to send you a message that you just need to accept the settings which become configured automatically BUT in other instances you might need to manually configure the internet settings.

In this piece, I am going to share both ways including Access Point Names (APNs) for the different ISPs in Uganda, which are helpful in the manual set-up of internet settings. Don’t worry about how to configure internet settings for ISPs; Africell, MTN, Airtel, Smart Telkom, Smile & UTL – Just keep scrolling. By the time we are done, you shall be browsing away, so be sure to save that 10k from giving it away to that airtime selling shop.

  1. How to get internet settings automatically
  2. How to manually configure internet settings. (Steps & ISP Access Point Names/APNs)

Contents

1. How to get internet setting automatically

Internet Settings

AFRICELL

  • Send “GET” to 152
  • Follow the instructions that will come after, AND get your internet settings.

Alternatively

  • Call the Africell helpline (100) and press 3. Settings shall be sent to your phone.

MTN

  • Call the MTN helpline (100) and press 3, then 1 and 1. Settings shall be sent to your phone.
  • You can talk to the customer care services via the same helpline and they send these settings directly to your phone.

AIRTEL

  • Dial *175#
  • Input Option 7 (Internet Settings)
  • The settings shall be sent; all you need to do is accept them

SMILE

  • Since smile is largely an Internet Provider, you don’t need a USSD to access their internet settings. If you have the Mi-Fi, your good to go.
  • All you need is pay to your SMILE account via mobile money or any-other means of payment.

Follow this link for their bundles, from where you can recharge bundles onto your account.

SMART

  • The said falling telecom service is still in existence BUT all we managed to get from their users is;
  • Dial *100# to get internet packages.

UTL

  • Call the UTL helpline (100), and you shall be assisted

For any other services offered by the above telecommunications service providers, click out our list of USSD codes for each of them.

NOTE: For some phones, the settings cannot be sent automatically. So you MUST do the set up manually for such phones.

Lycamobile Uganda internet settings

To configure your lycamobile to browse internet or send MMS register the APN settings below.

Lycamobile APN Settings

  • APN – data.lycamobile.ug
  • username –
  • Password –
  • PDP Type –
  • Auth Type – PAP
  • MCC – 641
  • MNC – 26

Dial number

  • Carrier – Lycamobile
  • Android APN – data.lycamobile.ug
  • Auth Type – PAP
  • MVNO Type – spn
  • MVNO Value – Lycamobile

FOLLOW the proceeding steps on how to do this.

2. How to manually configure internet settings.

(I am going to use two phone interfaces, OnePlus T3 and LG V20)

  • Go to your phone settings and click on SIM & network or Mobile Data (as shown on the interfaces below)
configure Internet Settings
  • The next interface shall look as this one below.

Click on the SIM or Mobile networks, basing on your phone interface.

mobile Internet Settings
  • The next interface shall be as the one below. This is where you can click on the Access Point Names APN.
Internet Settings Access Point Names

(From this step, the interface you shall see next will be similar for any device you use.)

  • Here is how it will look.
  • You click on the add button on the top right corner as shown.
Internet Settings Add
  • After you click this, you shall have to input Name, APN, Port and Proxy, for some networks.
  • Here is how the interface you shall input this information looks like. This interface is similar for all smart-phones

(All the other spaces won’t need to be filled)

Internet Settings
  • After this, you shall click on the top right of your screen to save the settings.

BELOW, we share the APNs (Access Point Names) List for ISPs in Uganda, Ports as well as Proxies.

(The Name option can be given any name of your choice, BUT for formality it is always the name of the Telecommunication network)

Some of these APN settings also need Ports and Proxies, and others don’t. We decided to get you those which do not require a Proxy or Port, so you don’t have to do a lot of work.

AFRICELL internet Settings

  • NAME: Africell
  • APN: orange.ug
  • PROXY: n/a
  • PORT: n/a

MTN internet Settings

  • NAME: MTN
  • APN: internet
  • PROXY: n/a
  • PORT: n/a

AIRTEL internet Settings

  • NAME: Airtel
  • APN: internet
  • PROXY: n/a
  • PORT: n/a

SMILE internet Settings

  • NAME: Smile
  • APN: internet
  • PROXY: n/a
  • PORT: n/a

SMART internet Settings

  • NAME: Smart
  • APN: smart.ug
  • PROXY: n/a
  • PORT: n/a

UTL internet Settings

  • NAME: UTL
  • APN: utweb
  • PROXY: n/a
  • PORT: n/a

Check out this list for more on Uganda’s telecommunications networks APN settings, for android and iPhone details of these configurations.