MTC, TN, NamPower agreement is unfair, prohibitive – competition commission

The tripartite agreement entered into by the Namibia Power Corporation (NamPower), Telecom Namibia Limited (TN) and Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC) in June 2012 for exclusive use of fiber cable is prohibitive and unfair.

This is according to investigations by the Namibia Competitions Commision (NaCC).

A statement released by NaCC corporate communications practitioner Dina //Gowases confirmed the findings and called for recourse.

“The commission would like to reiterate that although its findings revealed that the respondents engaged in a prohibited conduct, no final decision has been made on the way forward and the commission wishes to invoke the process contemplated by Section 36 of the Act and afford the affected undertakings or parties an opportunity to make written submissions and oral representations to the commission,” //Gowases says.

She says the commission has given the three – MTC, NamPower and TN – and complainants 30 days to make any written submissions or indicate whether they would need an opportunity to make oral representations, in terms of the Competition Act.

“Upon consideration of any written and oral representations by the concerned parties, the commission may institute proceedings in the High Court against the parties, in terms of Section 38 of the Act.

“The commission also wishes to advise that in terms of Section 40 of the Act, the respondent has an opportunity to engage the commission for possible settlement of this matter and avoid proceedings,” //Gowases says
According to NaCC, the tripartite agreement abused their dominance.

It also contraved some sections of the Competitions Act.

“It is important to note that no final decision has been made,” she says.

The agreement allegedly provided TN and MTC exclusive use of their propositional share of the dark optic fibre for a duration of 10 years from the date of commencement of the agreement, subject to automatic renewal for a period of one year.