Johannesburg, 19 Aug 2009
MTC has called for a competent management team to be put in place to manage the affairs of the telecommunications industry.
The company's General Manager for Corporate Affairs, Albertus Aochamub, said on Monday that once the Communications Bill has been signed into law, MTC expects competent men and women with high integrity to be deployed at the yet-to-be established Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN). CRAN would effectively replace the Namibia Communications Commission (NCC).
MTC's call comes in the wake of stinging criticism about its tariffs and its alleged unwillingness to co-operate in the provision of information to an independent think tank, ICT Africa.
“Information that operators provided in confidence to NCC was used in the public domain by a consultant of ICT Africa, with no permission from the regulation to attack MTC unfairly,” Aochamun complained.
He said MTC also expects a robust regulator with real teeth to be set up to implement the Universal Service for all. “We have to urgently address the gap between the urban and rural divides and the gap between the haves and the have-nots.”
He said all telecommunications players are eagerly awaiting service and technology neutral licences as soon as the Communications Bill is passed into law, to level the playing field and give consumers the choices they desperately need.
Aochamub made the remarks at the announcement of the subsidised laptop and 3G (Internet) packages to students and staff of the International University of Management (IUM).
“With the world rapidly experiencing a knowledge revolution, it is important that the students at the IUM are equipped with future-proof and most appropriate tools and skills needed to successfully compete in the more integrated global world of today.”
In response, IUM Vice-Chancellor, Dr David Namwandi, appreciated MTC's gesture, noting that technology is the way to go if Namibia was to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with advanced nations of the world.
“We cannot have a knowledge-based economy if there are still people who are not technologically equipped, and we must reverse the trend of Namibia always consuming what others produce, if we are capable of producing our own software and hardware,” Namwandi concluded.
In terms of the student package, IUM students and staff would get free Internet connection as well as a subsidised laptop.
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