Both Senegal and Uganda have made moves to bring further competition to their respective telecommunications sectors, although the new licences will be vertically integrated, rather than opening up competition across a wide range of markets.
This is in contrast to SA's own policy of managed liberalisation and its move towards horizontally integrated licences with the Convergence Bill.
The Senegalese government has announced it will choose a global telecommunications operator to compete with the incumbent, France Telecom subsidiary Sonatel, on long-distance and international fixed-line calls. This will take place by the end of March this year.
"The state has decided in the course of the first quarter 2005 to launch an international tender in order to choose an operator which will be granted a global licence to enable it to operate in all segments of the telecommunications market," says Joseph Ndong, Senegal's minister of post and telecommunications.
He also claims Senegal will be open to further competition in sectors such as transmission of data and international calls "in order to promote a more dynamic and efficient sector".
Meanwhile, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) is working towards licensing a third national operator (TNO) to provide both fixed-line and mobile communication services.
Currently MTN Uganda and the incumbent, Uganda Telecommunications Limited, provide the nation with these services, but the UCC's technical manager, Patrick Mwesigye, says the plan is to license a TNO within 12 months of the expiry of the current duopoly's status, which will occur in June.
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