POTRAZ plans universal service licence and shared infrastructure

Zimbabwean newspaper The Herald reports that the country’s government is creating legislation that will allow telecoms regulator POTRAZ to issue universal service licences. The proposed concessions are expected to replace mobile licences when the latter come up for renewal later this year. POTRAZ’s deputy director of communications, James Madya, said: ‘Licences are about to expire and because of technological changes that are happening in the industry we cannot continue to issue operators with the old licence which only allowed an operator to work within the stipulations of that licence. The new licence would allow operators to diversify their products’. The concessions of Econet and Telecel are due to expire in June. Madya also added that an amended Postal and Telecommunications Act would include the compulsory sharing of infrastructure between operators, in order to produce cost savings for both the operators themselves and for consumers.