Kaapanda roasts MTC

OUTGOING minister of information Joel Kaapanda said MTC should not strangle other competitors, but adhere to the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) procedures.

Kaapanda was speaking at a dinner held in his honour by CRAN at a city hotel on Monday.

“They should rather contribute to and accelerate the level of information technology development for sustainable development,” Kaapanda advised.

He says in spite of CRAN’s duty to regulate anti-competitive behaviour in the ICT industry, the authority faces a constant challenge of operators who either choose to ignore the objectives of the Communications Act or perpetually engage in activities that constitute unfair competition.

In January, after weeks of complaints by customers, MTC had to discontinue its ‘N$2 for 10MB per day’ campaign.

At the time, MTC chief of human capital and corporate affairs Tim Ekandjo said ending the promotion does not mean the company admits guilt. He also said MTC has not given up on its approach, but had simply put it aside for now.

Despite the numerous complaints from customers, Ekandjo said “the data promotion was introduced in the best interest of customers, considering that the evolution of smartphones has brought about high demands for data usage”.

Last month CRAN issued a regulatory summons against MTC for contravening sections of the Communications Act.

It said regulatory offences arose from the introduction of the ‘N$2 for 10MB promotion’; the introduction of the Select, S, M, L and XL promotional packages; the other promotional data bundles and the Aweh promotional packages introduced on 12 December last year.

Hilma Hitula, acting CRAN CEO, last month said the issue will be dealt with as per the procedure laid out in section 115 of the Communications Act, and the public will be informed of the outcome once the process has been finalised.

CRAN also requested MTC post-paid subscribers to review their billing statements for January and February and to ensure that they were not billed from the period 12 December 2014 to 21 January 2015.

Kaapanda, who is Namibia’s first minister of communication, also took the opportunity to highlight other challenges the regulator is currently facing.

He said one of these is the setting up of adequate infrastructure to allow for greater reach of ICT in terms of Internet access and broadband capacity.

“Additionally, to strengthen, harmonise and integrate policy and regulatory frameworks in SADC and the wider African region, particularly when it comes to home and away roaming, open access to backbone infrastructure and undersea cables as well as converged licensing regimes to provide quad-play services,” Kaapanda noted.

He concluded that to date the finalisation of the numbering plan which will allow customers to port with their numbers to a new operator of their choice also remains a challenge.

tuyeimo@namibian.com.na

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