MACRA Switches On Second Fixed Line Operator

Access Communications Limited became the second fixed line company in Malawi to roll out its telecommunications services in the country on 11 September 2009, and in the process satisfying license conditions set by the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA). One of the conditions was for the company to roll out its services within a period of 12 months from the time they were granted a license.

MACRA’s Acting Director Mike Kuntiya was the first person to make a call at the company’s head offices in Blantyre. In the first phase of its operations, Access Communications is expected to take on close to 35, 000 subscribers and has currently employed 35 people in the technical department.
 
Commenting on this development, Kuntiya told The Nation newspaper that the gesture had given assurance on the new company’s seriousness to roll out. “We have noticed that Access Communications Limited is in the right path. What remains now is for them to bring in the other gadgets and be up and running,” he said.
 
Access Communications Chief Executive Faizal Okhai said calls at the moment could only be made within Limbe in Blantyre city. “We don’t have an interconnection with the other networks in the country but we expect to finalize such arrangements within the coming two months,” he said.

Malawi only had one fixed line company known as Malawi Posts and Telecommunications Limited (MPTC). The company was later split and two companies were born; Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL) and Malawi Posts Corporation (MPC). MTL was later sold by government to a consortium led by Press Corporation Limited. Access Communications Limited is the only company that has rolled out its services among five telecommunications companies that were granted licenses by MACRA early this year.

Reagan Malumo
Programme Officer: 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
E mail: reagan@misa.org

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