The Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) has warned that the regulatory body could be forced to enforce existing regulations to ensure that dominant players in the sector comply with infrastructure sharing regulations introduced in October 2016.
“CRAN will formulate a mitigation plan to enforce dominant licensees to comply with the framework on active infrastructure sharing. In short, CRAN has a regulatory framework for Infrastructure Sharing, it is now a matter of enforcing these regulations to comply with HPP II and for the benefit of consumers,” CRAN CEO, Emilia Nghikembua said.
The country’s infrastructure regulations call for the non-discriminatory and non-exclusive sharing of passive and active telecommunications infrastructure by dominant licensees.
Nghikembua said CRAN was concerned by the unwillingness of dominant players in the country’s telecommunications sector to share infrastructure.
“CRAN has however noted that limited active infrastructure sharing is currently happening in Namibia and most disputes declared by licensees pertain to active infrastructure sharing. A grave concern noted here is that dominant licensees are not willing to implement active sharing, especially with new entrants in the market and CRAN has identified this as a risk to the attainment of Activity 1 of HPP II,”
Nghikembua said infrastructure sharing was key in reducing costs for the public, while increasing access.
“Active infrastructure sharing is crucial for open-access sharing to reduce costs to the benefit of consumers and can only happen when a licensee can utilize the same radio network of another operator such as national roaming or a Mobile Victual Network Operator (MVNO),” she said.
This comes as MTN and MTC are currently reported to be embroiled in an infrastructure sharing dispute, with MTC accused of declining MTN’s request to utilise MTC’s infrastructure for national roaming purposes.
MTC in turn has argued that it does not have capacity to share its infrastructure.
Established in terms of the Communications Act (No. 8 of 2009), CRAN is an independent regulator that regulates, supervises and promotes the provision of telecommunication services and networks, broadcasting, postal services and the use and allocation of radio spectrum in Namibia.
