This is especially because of the past public misconceptions that only associated the communication sector with mobile services and satellites, says a report by New Era.
“Yet on a day to day basis [we] deal with diverse service providers ranging from aviation industry, maritime construction, tourism, agriculture, amateur and other private electronic communication services requiring spectrum use for individual use or business,” said CRAN board chairperson, Lazarus Jacobs.
CRAN is relatively a new kid on the block, having only started with operations in May this year, 2011, although much work took place behind the scenes since the promulgation of the Communications Act almost two years ago.
The Act provides for the establishment of a regulatory authority that turns the old Namibian Communications Commission into an independent body.
Then came CRAN to regulate the issuing of broadcasting licences and allocation of frequencies among many other operational responsibilities.
In effect CRAN regulates the entire information communication sector, from setting up rules and reviewing tariffs for communication players to intervening on consumer complaints.
The Act also made provision for CRAN to ensure that service providers invest in rural areas, as part of their licence conditions, with money going into a Universal Service Fund.
The fund would drive the rolling out of development projects into rural areas, to accelerate the growth of the local information and communication technology (ICT) industry to address economic development.
“CRAN is not there to over-regulate the ICT industry, but to ensure that the ICT industry operates in a competitive way, delivers services to the consumer and operates in a conducive environment,” said Information and Communication Technology Minister Jöel Kaapanda.
Besides calls for the industry to cooperate with the provisions of the Universal Service Fund, Kaapanda also asked the industry not to discriminate. “We want to see efficiency in all government and public sectors and innovation and creativity in the market.”
Broadcasting and telecommunication services are some of the dynamic and complex industries for CRAN because of the proliferation of technology that industry thrives on. Jacobs said there is a lot of interest from new players in the industry who want to complement the innovation services currently in the market. //End//
Reagan Malumo
Programme Specialist: Media Freedom Monitoring and Research
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Regional Secretariat
21 Johann Albrecht St
Private Bag 13386
Windhoek
Namibia
Phone: +264 61 232 975
Fax: +264 61 248 016
Mobile: +264 81 311 2626
Official Email: reagan(@)misa.org
Private Email: reagan32002(@)yahoo.com
Back
