Zambia's new government has reinstituted entry barriers into the country's telecommunications sector by upholding a decision to disallow the issuing of mobile licences.
This means international telecoms operators hoping to invest in Zambia will have to wait longer before they can apply for a fourth mobile licence in the southern African country.
Like the previous administration, the new Zambian government claims the entry barriers are aimed at allowing the current three mobile operators - MTN, Airtel and Zamtel - to adequately expand their networks and compete favourably.
The Ministry of Transport, Works, Supply and Communications' acting permanent secretary, Nelson Nyangu, said the decision to remove the entry barriers would only be made once the situation has been reviewed.
Nyangu said last week the Zambian government is not ready to issue an additional licence as the three mobile operators are still investing and expanding their operations to rural areas. This is despite the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA), the country's telecoms sector regulator, stating there is enough spectrum to licence more operators in the country.
“As experts, we still feel and want to give time to the three mobile phone service providers to invest their money until such a time when we feel that they have expanded,” Nyangu said.
He said there was also no indication that government would issue a fourth mobile licence in president Michael Sata's speech to parliament.
Last year, a UK arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers was engaged by ZICTA to undertake a cost of service study and make recommendations on the performance of the telecoms sector in Zambia.
The six-month study revealed the Zambian telecoms sector was still closed and recommended that the ban be lifted so the sector would be open for more competition through further investment. However, the Zambian government claimed then that it had opened up the telecoms market for more investment by regional and international operators in order to develop the sector.
Although it may be necessary to bring in a fourth mobile operator, Nyangu said policies of the new government and manifesto are silent on the matter.
He said the Zambian government froze the issuance of the fourth mobile licence because there was a need for confidence in the market that would allow the three operators to pump in money and grow their businesses.
The current market share of 3.5 million out of a population of over 13 million people is relatively small, hence the need for investment guarantees from those already investing in the sector, according to Nyangu.
Zambia's licensing regime is, to some extent, converged, but still not yet unified.
Competition is already rife among the country's three mobile operators, with Airtel Zambia claiming last month it has erected more than 100 communication towers in remote rural areas of the country's western province in order to expand its services and ease communication problems.
Meanwhile, MTN said it has invested over $40 million this year alone in network upgrades and expansion to raise market share to 37%.
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