Communications Bill to increase competition

THE long-awaited Communications Bill tabled in Parliament on Wednesday by Minister of Information and Communication Technology Joel Kaapanda includes numerous attempts to stimulate competition in the telecommunications sector.

It is also set to establish an independent regulatory authority for the communication sector, which Namibia has been lacking up to now but which is standard practice in other countries. On the matter of competition, the law states that ‘any abuse of individual or collective dominant position by one or more persons in a market for the supply of telecommunications and broadcasting services … is prohibited’.This includes a clause which mandates operators who are dominant in a certain field to make their infrastructure available at rates that are ‘just, reasonable, and non-discriminatory’.This new law might for example force MTC, the largest cellphone operator in Namibia with the most advanced infrastructure, to make its services available at cheaper rates than is currently the case.Other operators have long complained that the interconnection fees MTC charges are prohibitively high and prevent competition. Under the new law, all interconnection arrangements must be submitted to and approved by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology. The law also states that the ‘the quality of interconnection must be at least equal to that provided by a carrier to itself’ and that charges for interconnection ‘may not exceed the carrier’s forward-looking incremental costs’. All tariffs charged by operators must now also be filed with the Ministry. It then has the power to prescribe ‘limits on the tariffs that licensees may charge for the rendering of communication services’ and the Ministry may reject a tariff if it is ‘unreasonable’.Namibia’s two biggest mobile communications operators, MTC and Cell One, both welcomed the tabling of the bill.The Corporate Communications Officer of MTC, Albertus Aochamub, called the bill ‘a good piece of compromise’ for which the sector had been ‘waiting for many years’. He said that ‘no act would ever be perfect’ but that the bill ‘allows all of us to give something in return for something bigger’. Cell One’s Chief Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Officer Stanley Similo said the bill would ‘streamline the market’ and ‘make sure that we are regulated on an equal footing’. He said the bill would prevent a situation where ‘others do things that could be seen as anti-competitive’. Aochamub said the industry had always been uncertain on such issues as the establishment of a fourth cellphone operator, and that the bill would give clarity on such matters. He said before the bill was passed, the mobile communications sector was ‘a bit of a Wild West situation’ as it was essentially unregulated.Similo said Cell One was not worried about a new clause stating company ownership in the sector should be 51 per cent Namibian, as the Act further states that this ruling would only apply after the bill has become law.Cell One is currently wholly owned by Egyptian company Orascom Telecom.However, Similo said Cell One has a ‘commitment that would allow for elements of localisation’ and that the company is ‘on track in realising that goal’.The bill will be discussed in Parliament and can be amended before it is passed into law.