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Noble Ncube, Business Reporter
THE Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe is finalising the setting up of a Converged Licensing Framework (CLF) that will encourage unfettered growth of new applications and services leveraging on the technological developments in the country’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, an official has said.
Licence categories envisaged under the converged licensing regime are Infrastructure licence, Network facilities licence, Network service licence and the Application services licence.
Potraz acting director-general Mr Baxton Sirewu said the proposal of the new licensing framework was as a result of a poor regulatory and licensing statutes by the existing guidelines.
“The proposed migration to a converged licensing framework was necessitated by the fact that the current regulatory and licensing framework is service specific and can no longer fully address the dictates of the market, evolving consumer needs, velocity of technology and international best practice. Furthermore, consumers and operators cannot fully benefit from technological developments due to licence restrictions.
“A converged framework will ensure a strong sector growth anchored on innovation, fair competition, affordability and good quality of services. It will also encourage unfettered growth of new applications and services leveraging on the technological developments in the ICT area as well as ensure efficient utilisation of spectrum and numbering resources,” he said.
The first consultation paper on converged licensing was issued to stakeholders on 23 October 2015.
Stakeholders were requested to provide inputs and comments to the consultation paper on converged licensing and had over four months to make their submissions.
The consultative workshop on the proposed (CLF) was held on 8 March 2016 at the Harare International Conference Centre (HICC). The consultative workshop was attended by 90 participants drawn from the telecommunications operators, Government ministries, the academia, industry groups, consumer groups and other regulators such as the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
Mr Sirewu said the aim of the workshop was to deliberate on the input from stakeholders on the proposed framework and to map the way forward.
He said the workshop was a success and the respondents were in agreement with the authority`s proposals although they raised some issues that require deliberation.
“The inputs gathered from the consultation process will be incorporated in the final paper on converged licensing. It was agreed that the financial aspects of various license categories will be discussed in a second round of consultations. The roadmap to the finalisation of the converged licensing framework includes discussion of the financial aspects of the various licence categories to be deliberated in the second round of consultations at a date to be advised.
“Potraz will draft the CLF Regulations Incorporating Licence Fee Proposals by 30 April 2016. The Draft CLF Regulations will be ready for consultation by the end of June 2016. The second Consultative Workshop should be done by 30 July 2016. Potraz will clean up Draft CLF Regulations incorporating outcomes of Consultations by 15 August 2016 and the Draft CLF Regulations will be submitted to the Ministry for Approvals by 1 September 2016,” said Mr Sirewu.
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