Minister intervenes in interconnection fee disputes

Interconnection fee disputes among service providers in Namibia have forced the minister of information and communication technology to intervene, but with little power to punish the erring service providers due to a lack of communication laws.

While Mobile Telecommunication Company (MTC), Telecom Namibia and Cell One accuse each other of anti-competitive practices, Minister of ICT Joel Kapaanda said his hands are tied.

"The major hindrance to addressing telecom issues in Namibia is lack of a comprehensive legal framework to properly regulate the industry," Kapaanda said.

Telecom Namibia and Cell One have ganged up against MTC, accusing the company of charging its subscribers exorbitant interconnection tariffs when calling Telecom Namibia and Cell One networks.

Kapaanda's office issued a directive ordering the service providers to stop the interconnection fee squabbles until the problem is sorted out by the ministry.

However, a revised communication law to regulate the country's telecom industry is not expected to be tabled in Parliament for discussion and approval until later this year. The bill is currently under consideration by the Cabinet, but the Namibian government has been working on the bill for nearly 10 years.

In the meantime, Kapaanda has called for a meeting with the service providers to examine an alternative interconnection regime.

The new interconnection fees should be mutually acceptable, economically viable and benchmarked along the best telecom practices in the Southern African Development Community region, Kapaanda said. Until such agreeable interconnection fees are decided upon, he said, subscribers will continue to be pay outrageous charges.

The interconnection fee wrangles, Kapaanda noted, will not only bring the management of the telecom industry into disrepute but is also counterproductive to the development of Namibia's telecom sector.