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Suriname: Mobile Monopoly Ends |
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Tuesday, 17 April 2007 |
Suriname state-owned monopoly Telesur now has mobile competition in Irish-based Digicel and local operator Intelsur.
Government representative Maurits Hassankhan said the provision of the mobile licenses marks the liberalisation of the telecommunication sector that started four years ago when the government drafted the new Telecommunication Provisions Act.
The country's remote areas should soon receive service as the new operators were assigned specific areas of the interior as well as the coastal zone to provide GSM services.
"The expectations are very high and the government is hoping that with your involvement by 2015 Suriname will achieve one of the Millennium Development Goals, by giving all its citizens excess to telecommunication", said Hassankhan.
As a result of the move, the Telecommunication Authority Suriname (TAS) has replaced Telesur as the regulator of the industry. TAS manager Jett Olff told reporters that the three companies would soon start interconnection negotiations to link their networks.
"If the rates are set too high we have the right to step in and also we have the right to take measures if the tariffs are being set too low", said Olff.
Intelsur is partnering with United Telecommunication Services from Curaçao and plans to start operations in July 2007. Digicel says it plans to begin operations later this year.
Source: BBC and Caribbean Media Corporation - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News. |
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India: Rural Mobile Auction Results |
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Friday, 13 April 2007 |
Results are now in for the bidding process held by the Department of Telecom (DoT) to provide mobile services to 250,000 villages in 81 clusters.
New Delhi Reliance Communications and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) won a majority of the Universal Services Obligation (USO) funds available. At the end of the third and final round of bidding, Reliance won 72 clusters of villages. BSNL won contracts for 58 clusters of villages.
Seven operators participated in the bidding. DoT selected three operators per cluster. The bids quoted are so aggressive that instead of paying the operators for rolling out services in rural areas, the Government will receive money. Based on the operators’ bids, the Government will get about US$ 23,000 a year. Most bids were for negative amounts. While the amount the government will receive may be insignificant, it is interesting that the Government was willing to give away up to US$ 187 million annually to the winning operators.
Idea Cellular, Hutchison Essar and Aircel each won rights to offer service in 15 to 20 clusters. The operators who have won the bids will get the benefit of using “passive infrastructure”, set up with support from the USO fund, without paying any fees to offer mobile service in the rural market. Passive infrastructure comprises land, tower, power connection, and associated civil and electrical works that enable operators to offer mobile service. A majority of this infrastructure will be set up by BSNL, which won a total of 80% of the tenders, winning contracts to set up 6,125 mobile towers out of the total 7,871 passive cell sites envisaged by the Government.
While currently mobile networks cover about 60% of the population, the USO project will extend coverage to an additional 25% of the population who are currently without access to telecommunication facilities.
Source: The Hindu Business Line - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News. |
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Zambia: Government will not liberalise international gateway |
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Thursday, 12 April 2007 |
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The government of Zambia will not liberalise the country’s international gateway as requested by private mobile operators. The government says that the existing Mwembeshi Earth Station is not being fully utilised.
There have been requests for the government to reduce the price of an international gateway license from US$ 12 million and allow private sector operators to apply for their own gateways. Currently, private mobile operators have to route their international calls through state-owned Zamtel, which has exclusive rights to the Mwembeshi Earth Station. According to the Zambia Business Forum, the government decided against liberalisation of the international gateway since only 25% of the capacity of the Mwembeshi Earth Station is being utilised.
The issue of liberalising the international gateway has been debated recently and there are arguments that a monopoly on the gateway promotes anti-competitive practices by Zamtel. In March, the Zambian unit of Celtel International asked the government to liberalise the international gateway. Celtel pointed out that liberalisation would increase the revenue contributions of the telecom sector to the government and enhance the efficiency of the industry in Zambia.
Source: Xinhua - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News. |
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Russia: Operators request US$ 386 million for universal service |
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Wednesday, 11 April 2007 |
Russian telecommunication operators providing universal service have filed for reimbursement of US$ 386 million.
Sergei Bulancha, deputy director of Russia’s Federal Communications Agency (Rossvyaz), said that the agency would verify the operators’ calculations and that the amount could be reduced.
Operators provide universal service expect to receive compensation this year from the universal services fund, which was established in July 2005 and had US$ 376 million in resources as of March 1. Russian fixed-line and mobile operators contribute 1.2% of their revenues to the fund, excluding revenues from interconnection and traffic routing services.
The universal service program involves the installation of payphones and public Internet access points in all Russian settlements with a population of more than 500 people.
Source: Prime-Tass - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News. |
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Indonesia: Tender for village phones to be held soon |
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Tuesday, 03 April 2007 |
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Indonesia’s government plans to hold a tender for the provision of universal service obligation (USO) village phones in eleven blocks encompassing 18,000 villages.
Gatot S. Dewa Broto from the Directorate General of Post and Telecommunication said that the government is still deciding whether to put all blocks to tender or not.
"To be sure, the government will hold the tender for the procurement of village telecommunication this month," he said.
The regions to be tendered will be established by the Minister of Communication and Information. The service areas will be designed to distribute infrastructure equally among villages.
The Regulation on Provision of Telecommunication Universal Service Obligation states that each telecommunication network and service provider is required to pay a percentage of their gross revenues as USO fees. Source: Bisnis Indonesia - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News. |
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Brazil: Government to provide free Internet access to native tribes |
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Monday, 02 April 2007 |
Brazil's government intends to provide free Internet access to native tribes in the Amazon in an effort to help protect the rain forest.
The ministers of the environment and communications signed an agreement with the Forest People's Network to provide satellite Internet service to 150 communities, many reachable only by boat. The service will enable the people to report illegal logging and ranching and coordinate efforts to preserve the forest.
The Environment Ministry said city and state governments must set up telecentres with computers in selected areas before the federal government will provide the satellite connection. The areas in 13 states were chosen by the Environment Ministry, the National Indian Foundation (Funai), and Ibama, the government environmental protection agency.
Francisco Ashaninka, a native from the Ashaninka tribe who works for the western Acre state government, said the arrival of Internet was a success for the Forest People's Network, created in 2003. He said there are currently a few telecentres on the outskirts of cities, but that the new ones will be built deep in the forest and will give natives easy access to public officials so that they can alert them of illegal miners, loggers and ranchers.
Source: Associated Press - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News. |
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Kenya: Government to privatize Telkom |
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Wednesday, 28 March 2007 |
Kenya invited expressions of interest to purchase a 26% of Telkom Kenya, the state-owned landline operator.
The government also said it intends to sell an additional 34% of Telkom in an initial public offering once the 26% strategic partner has been selected. The winner will be announced on September 25 and an agreement signed by October 17.
Telkom is Kenya’s sole landline operator. It had 280,000 lines at the end of 2006, compared with about 8 million mobile subscribers.
In related news, Telkom announced that they plan to hand the government their 60% stake in mobile operator Safaricom, to allow the landline company to compete effectively against its former subsidiary. Vodafone owns the other 40% of Safaricom. Telkom currently offers a CDMA service and expects to roll out full mobile services in the second quarter of 2007.
The telecom regulator recently cancelled the award of a second national operator license to a Kenyan-Indian company, Reliance, the second highest bidder, after it failed to make a formal application in time. Dubai-based VTEL had won the tender but was disqualified after it also failed to come up with the required US$ 169.7 million before the government’s deadline.
Source: Reuters - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News. |
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Macedonia: Telekom Austria Wins GSM License |
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Tuesday, 27 March 2007 |
Telekom Austria was the successful bidder in the tender for the third mobile license in the Republic of Macedonia.
Telekom paid US$ 13.3 million for a 10-year GSM 900/1800 license. After ten years, the license will be automatically extended for another ten years.
Telekom plans to invest US$ 93.0 million in Macedonia and hire 200 domestic experts in order to develop its operations.
The license requires that operations start within six months. The license also requires 30% of the population is to be covered after one year, 50% after two years, and 90% after four years.
"In order to meet the conditions set by the Agency for Electronic Communications, during the initial roll out, Telekom Austria will rely on the existing Macedonian public telecommunication networks in addition to building its own network," the company said.
Telekom Austria currently has operations in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Liechtenstein. It is setting up its operation in Serbia.
Source: Dow Jones report - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News. |
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India: TRAI Reduces Access Deficit Charge |
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Wednesday, 21 March 2007 |
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said it would cut the Access Deficit Charge (ADC) starting April 1.
The ADC is a charge imposed on private telecommunications operators to fund state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.'s (BSNL’s) rural operations. TRAI will reduce the charge to 0.75% of adjusted gross revenues of telecom operators from the current rate of 1.5%. Charges for both incoming and outgoing international long distance calls have also been cut. Incoming international charges will be lowered to US$ 0.023 per minute from US$ 0.036 per minute. The charge for outgoing calls is currently US$ 0.018 per minute and will be removed.
The cut in the ADC should lead to reductions in tariffs that are already among the lowest in the world due to intense competition. Currently, calls in India typically cost between US$ 0.011 and US$ 0.023 per minute.
Bharti Airtel, the country's largest mobile operator by number of subscribers, said the removal of the ADC on outgoing international calls will allow the company to re-evaluate those tariffs.
"The benefits of this reduction will be passed on to the customer," Bharti Airtel President Manoj Kohli said.
The Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI), the industry lobby representing all nine GSM operators, expressed disappointment as the reduction in the charges was less than expected.
TRAI Chairman Nripendra Misra said that the ADC will be phased out after the 2008 financial year. With the ADC reduction, the total ADC collection for the fiscal year starting April 1 is projected to fall to US$ 456 million from US$ 729 million in the current fiscal year.
Source: Dow Jones report - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News. |
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Peru: Bidding rules for mobile license approved |
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Monday, 19 March 2007 |
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ProInversion, Peru's state agency for promoting private investment, has approved bidding rules for a fifth mobile license. ProInversion says the project requires a US$ 200 million investment.
Interested companies must be pre-qualified by the agency by April 16. Final bids are due by May 7. The agency is also holding a public consultation period through March 22 for interested parties and will publish responses to the consultation on April 9.
The new license adds to the three mobile existing mobile licensees, Movistar Peru, Claro Peru and Nextel Peru. An auction process for a fourth mobile license in the 800MHz band is already underway. That spectrum was reclaimed by the government as part of the merger agreement between Bellsouth and Movistar. Bids for the 800MHz spectrum are due on May 1. Source: Cellular-News - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News. |
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