Sundaymail Editor
Online Reporter
Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) says digital policies should be driven by the need to resolve the widening digital divide between urban and rural populations.
Potraz director-general Dr Gift Machengete made the comments during a national preparatory meeting ahead of the World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC) 23, which will be held in November 2023.
“We face the reality of a widening digital divide between the ‘haves and the have-nots’ and between the urban and rural segments of our populations. We need to urgently resolve these social vices,” said Dr Machengete.
“It is, therefore, imperative that the policy and regulatory environment is modernised in order to make it attractive for investment to flow into those areas that are currently being shunned for one reason or the other.”
The assignment of key spectrum resources, he added, should take into account the need to create a more equal society in terms of connectivity and access to the social benefits of a digital economy.
Africa has been advocating for identification of a number of millimetric wave bands for IMT 2020/5G as the continent is largely dependent on wireless technologies.
Over the past decade, SADC member states, Zimbabwe included, won the right to deploy outdoor radio local area networks (RLANs) in certain portions of the 5 GHz band, a development that was key to current initiatives in enhancing rural connectivity in the country.
“Potraz quickly moved to leverage availability of this band together with attendant technologies to adjust regulatory conditions in the band in order to facilitate utilisation of the band in the provision of broadband connectivity to rural schools, clinics and other amenities.”
Online Reporter