The World Bank has urged Zambia review its laws in the telecom industry. According to the Bank the country has become the most expensive in the region for private investors to enter the industry.
According to media reports from Lusaka, Kapil Kapoor, World Bank’s Country Manager said Zambia’s telecom sector needs to be reviewed and address all the problems, infrastructure, regulatory and institutional requirements.
“It is unfair to place the blame solely on the international gateway fees as the only hindrance to telecom sector development but to also look at other factors related to infrastructure development, regulatory and institutional requirements,” Kapoor told IDG News.
The Ministry of Communications and Transport increased the international gateway fee two months ago from US$12 million to more than $18 million, making Zambia the most expensive country in Eastern and Southern African for private telecom investors to do business.
Private operators in Zambia must route their international calls through the government-owned Zambia Telecommunication Company (Zamtel), which owns and operate the international gateway. However, Zain Zambia and MTN issued a joint statement recently claiming that Zamtel’s gateway is experiencing increased failures on international calls.
The Zambian government has refused to deregulate the country’s international gateway, claiming that doing so would put the security of the country at risk.
Last week Zambian lawmakers forced Minister of Communications and Transport Dora Siliya to make a statement on the government’s refusal to sell international gateways to private mobile operators.
According to the lawmakers, it was not normal for Siliya to remain silent on the issue.
In April, pan-African mobile service provider Zain appealed to lawmakers to force the Zambian government to reduce the cost of gateway licenses in order to make the mobile market competitive and bring down the high cost of communication.
Siliya, however, told the lawmakers Wednesday that the Zambian government has deliberately restricted private mobile service providers from obtaining licenses for international gateways for security reasons, raising the licensing fee from US$12 million to $19.5 million.
Protests by private mobile operators over the fees have been in vain, with the government claiming that Zambia’s security and the incumbent operator, Zamtel, would suffer if private operators stop routing their calls through Zamtel’s international gateway.
Zamtel provides both mobile and fixed services, has exclusive rights to the Mwembeshi Earth Station and collects revenue from private service operators using the satellite facilities.
International gateway licenses allow mobile-service providers to have their own signaling access codes, rather than using government-controlled codes that monitor and record every call made.
“In addition to security reasons, there was need also for the government to consult stakeholders on the framework of running international gateways by private operators,” Siliya told the lawmakers.
by ITnewsAfrica.com Reporter
