Minister: failure to provide universal service will cost operators their licence

Malawi’s Information Minister Patricia Kaliati has warned that the government will cancel the ICT licences of companies unwilling to deploy services to rural areas. She said that people in Malawi's rural areas have problems in accessing telephone, internet and fax services because operators have concentrated their business in urban areas. The minister added that companies had six to nine months to invest in outlying districts, failing which the regulator Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) would take away their licences and give them to other companies willing to invest in the rural areas.