You have news tips, feel free to contact us via email editor@thevillager.com.na

CRAN ORDERS MTC TO SHARE ‘BED’ WITH MTN

By: Kelvin Chiringa

Namibia’s leading telecoms company, MTC, will now have to share its infrastructure with a potentially fierce competitor, MTN.

This is according to a verdict made by the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) on Tuesday.

MTC was not initially keen to get in the same bed with MTN through infrastructure sharing (towers), but an investigation by CRAN has now found that this will not interfere with MTC’s technology.

The million-dollar question is whether MTC will follow the verdict and allow MTN to operate on their towers.

This will put MTN in a pole position to operate in the small market of 2.4 million in direct competition with MTC.

The latter has enjoyed years of uncontested sector monopoly, with little competition from its underdog, Telecom.

But for MTC, sharing does not always mean caring.

This may mean a compromise of quality service delivery where too many users on their towers may affect their service to the clients.

And this has thus put to question whether MTC will negotiate with MTN.

Chief Human Capital and Corporate Affairs Officer Tim Ekandjo could not spell out whether MTC would comply with CRAN or mount a legal challenge with the High Court but maintained that their legal team was still studying the verdict.

“Our legal team is still studying the verdict. Our position was that we did not have capacity. Meaning if you allow more people onto a certain tower because we have so many customers, it would mean those customers will be suffering because of congestion,” he said.

MTN was unreachable for a comment on their next course of action given the green light from CRAN.

The company rushed to the regulator on the 12th of March 2020, complaining that MTC was refusing to share its infrastructure.

This prompted an investigation, and on the 29th of September 2021, CRAN  recommended that MTC share space, which would not affect its quality of service.

It also came out that infrastructure sharing would not result in an unreasonable burden on MTC.

And finally, CRAN said, “The parties (must) engage in negotiations to come up with terms in compliance with Regulation 4 and 5 of the regulations prescribing the sharing of infrastructure”.

Suppose CRAN’s investigations and verdict hold water. In that case, nothing should stop MTC from sharing infrastructure with MTN given that infrastructure sharing is part of government policy; former Vice Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on ICT, Steve Bezuidenhout, has told The Villager.

From a policy standpoint, pillar 4 of the Harambee Prosperity Plan II also encompasses infrastructure development as a catalyst for economic growth, social progression and a contributor to global competitiveness and investment attraction.

This falls behind the aegis of CRAN.

“There is no way that CRAN can now say we will not allow infrastructure sharing because the law says there may be infrastructure sharing,” Bezuidenhout said.

HOWEVER, the HPP II plan holds explicitly that the telecoms space must see to the implementation of an ‘Open Access Network’ infrastructure sharing regime meant to champion Universal Broadband Access by 2025.

Bezuidenhout, however, believes that MTC may try to mount a legal challenge to try and wad off MTN and delay or stop allowing the latter to do business in the short term.

“What these (MTC) guys can do is that they can hire expensive lawyers to argue this thing in court. But it would help if you found out what MTN will do now. If they can’t agree, MTN will also take this whole thing to court. And that will take several years until one of them gets bankrupt or impatient or whatever. It’s all about survival,” he said.

MTN Group Limited, formerly M-Cell, is a South African multinational mobile telecommunications company operating in many African and Asian countries. Its head office is in Johannesburg.

 

Kelvin Chiringa

Related Posts

Read Also ... x