Comesa tips members on lowering ICT cost

Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) has tipped member States on how they can reduce the cost of information and communications technology (ICT) services in their respective countries.

The 21-member trade bloc said this in the context of the costs of mobile phone services, including data, which are comparatively high in some countries as compared to others.

Comesa director of infrastructure and logistics Jean Baptiste Mutabazi said in Lilongwe on Monday on the sidelines of the validation workshop for the draft report of the stakeholder mapping and baseline study that governments should consider subsidising the construction of infrastructure to enable operators to share, thereby saving on the cost.

He said players in the telecommunications sector can co-site their transmitters on one tower to further reduce the cost.

Said Mutabasi: “These are the things we are trying to address by developing some guidelines on infrastructure sharing.

“There are actually some countries in the region that have given licences to a network facility provider and operators do come and utilise the same.”

Commenting on the Comesa suggestion, TNM plc chief executive officer Arnold M’bwana said they agree with the idea.

He said: “For example, TNM plc now uses over 330 sites or towers previously owned by Airtel, now managed by Helios, plus over 80 sites owned by Malawi Telecommunications Limited, 15 sites owned by Access Communications Limited and four sites owned by Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi [Escom].”

M’bwana said the Malawi Stock Exchange-listed firm has also shared its own infrastructure with other players within the industry and Internet service provider space,

He said Airtel Malawi plc uses over 240 sites owned by TNM plc and a lot more Internet services providers are also using TNM plc sites to deliver their services.

M’bwana said TNM plc also uses fibre that is owned by Open Connect Limited, Escom and SimbaNet on the local front.

“TNM has also established partnerships with international fibre companies to enhance connectivity,” he said.

Airtel Malawi plc managing director Charles Kamoto also welcomed  Comesa’s idea, adding that a lot is already happening in that regard.

“Infrastructure sharing is key to bringing down the cost of telecommunications services. In fact, the industry is already sharing infrastructure such as towers, energy and fibre,” he said.

Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority director general Daud Suleman said most of the things mentioned by Comesa are already in practice in the country.

He said Malawi subsidises the construction of towers, especially in hard-to- reach areas.

Suleman said: “It is through a regulation on costing which the authority follows and encourages all operators to practise open access.

“The Universal Service Fund [USF) is also used largely to subsidise the cost of tower investment in areas that may be considered not highly marketable to telecoms or broadcasting companies to roll out.”

He said through USF, every part of Malawi is expected to have access to telecommunication services.