Role of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies
Traditionally the role of a Ministry of Information is to provide information about the workings of the government to its citizens and other stakeholders. This department is thus the Public Relations Officer of the Government. In recent times Governments throughout the world have created a Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies, and Namibia is no exception.
However, I argue that the two roles (PRO and ICT) are in fact two different areas of work with two different areas of expertise required. In the first, Public Relations is the field of communication in the form of press conferences, government bulletins, media liaison for government functions and activities, etc. In the second role of ICT, the Ministry is responsible for the development of Information and Communication Technologies for the improvement of the lives of our citizens.
Thus on the one hand, the Minister is the spokesperson for the Government, and on the other in charge of developing policies for the use of technologies by government and its people. In plain terms, the responsibility of ensuring Namibia becomes part of the knowledge-based society.
Telephony and Cellular Communications
One of the most often repeated arguments that I have heard about the prices for telecommunications is the lack of competition. The issue of competition, and specifically government monopolies, is addressed first. Later in the chapter I will address specific issues that I believe will decrease costs and provide better services for us as customers.
What are Monopolies?
Most people discuss monopolies and blame it for high allowing certain companies to get away with higher prices or unsatisfactory service levels. The argument here is that if competition is allowed, this would automatically mean lower prices or better service.
In the following text I look at the various types of monopolies, how they came to exist, and most importantly is competition always a good thing?
There are various types of monopoly. Let us look at the most common types in Namibia.
" Selling monopolies - a company is the only supplier of a product and the customers must accept the prices it fixes
" Producing monopolies - a company controls the manufacture or source of supply
" Trading monopolies - a company controls the marketing channel between the source and the customers
Furthermore, most monopolies are either national (countrywide) or local in geography.
There are three main ways in which a monopoly gets its power, either through the government (a political monopoly); through economic control by a company of a natural resource; or through commercial monopoly agreements between competitors.
A political monopoly comes about through a special government grant that forbids others to engage in this business activity. In countries ruled by monarchs this was often in the form of crown patents giving exclusive rights to carry out a certain business for example the collection of taxes. A second kind is the granted by a patent for an invention and copyright on books or music. In this form, the government encourages invention, research and writing by giving the full control of the "intellectual property" to the inventor or writer. It is recognized by all of us that such a monopoly is earned! Also the patent or copyright is limited in time, 14 years for patents and copyright for the lifetime of the writer. Another typical political monopoly is those for the supply of electricity, water or telecommunications. This last kind is often granted to state companies and encourages them to invest in areas that are helpful to the country and that normal capitalist (profit making) companies might not invest in. This is why it is important to have a Universal Service Fund when such monopoly rights are removed!
Economic monopolies come about when scarce natural resources come under the control of a company (or companies) who agree on the price. In most cases such economic monopolies could have been prevented had it been foreseen.
Government Policy on Monopolies
How does the man on the street react to monopolies or competition? Most of us agree that competition is a good thing in business as it brings about lower prices. Yet the same people would agree with me, the Zimbabweans are unfairly bringing down the wages or salaries we earn. This is where, dependent upon where we stand in relation to the practice or industry, our standpoints are developed.
The question is then, when is it acceptable to have a monopoly. The answer must be: When it can be regulated by Government.
Normally competition provides effective regulation. However, when a monopoly has too high prices, a competitor might build its own infrastructure, for example its own electricity or telephone lines next to the existing infrastructure. So we have to accept a policy of "monopoly-accepted" as a necessary feature for the public regulation of rates. We accept in Namibia that these industries are those that need expensive, permanent and use public areas (roads, electricity lines, telephone lines, etc.).
Conclusion
Thus it is in the interest of country to have monopolies in respect of the development and maintenance of the infrastructure. However, competition must be allowed in the provision of services that use it. Thus, to prevent the third type of monopoly, namely a trading monopoly, we cannot allow these state monopolies from selling directly to the public.[i]
Thus, I propose Telecom should become two separate companies. One, the owner of the physical infrastructure should continue to be the partner of government to ensure the roll-out of access to all Namibians (including receiving government funding where necessary). The second company must be a commercial company using the infrastructure at the same prices as its competitors and being able to sell directly to the commercial and individual customer.
Thus should also open the door for private investment in infrastructure through the proposed Build-Operate-Transfer proposed in Chapter 7. More companies would be willing to develop infrastructure such as broadband internet if they are assured that all telecoms companies would use their infrastructure.
Number Portability
Most countries around the world have opened their telecommunications markets to competition, which has accelerated the deployment of telecommunications services more quickly and cost-effectively than past monopolies have achieved.
Some of these liberalisation efforts are being driven by regulations that call for number portability. For example, the European Union (EU) Universal Service and Users’ Rights Directive (2002/22/EC), Article 30 — effective since July 2003 — imposes on all EU member states the following obligations:
Member states shall ensure that all subscribers of publicly available telephone services, including mobile services, who so request can retain their number(s) independently of the undertaking providing the service:
- • In the case of geographic numbers, at a specific location; and
- • In the case of non-geographic numbers, at any location.
As consumers we have must have the choice of which service provider we want to use. Most cellular and telephone subscribers however do not wish to lose their present number and therefore stay with the present provider. One of the toughest responsibilities facing the regulators in the Namibian telecom markets involves modernising our national numbering policies, numbering plans, and dialling plans.
We have to establish a numbering policy that provides a legal, legislative, and regulatory basis for competition. Then, our regulator must decide on numbering and dialling schemes, services, technologies, and billing and tariff methods that support its chosen numbering policy.
Lastly, it must also establish a fair, neutral office for numbering administration.
As for the technical issues which must be addressed, I propose we use a centralised / clearinghouse approach that will allow fixed-line and mobile number portability.
(I have heard the argument of the costs of implementing such a system – this however is always only the argument of the company with the biggest client base.)
Newer and newer technology
There are many instances where new technology is replaced so fast, even before business has had an opportunity to explore all the money-making ventures offered by the platform. This is especially the case in the telecommunications and the convergence of technologies.
An example of this is the common practice of young people to “chat.” They spend hours on their cellphones sending text messages to other people from all over the world in chat rooms on the internet. This technology is not new; it has been part of telecoms forever and comes from the time of Citizen Band radio. It started by pasting notices on electronic bulletin boards, then on the net as Internet Relay Chat (IRC). What was different though is the fact that Cellphone with GPRS technology (which is being replaced by 3G, EDGE, etc.), is the best and cheapest way for a cellular user to connect. Thus an older phone does the job as well, if not better than a new one.
While I am talking about old technologies, can we not please introduce a national postcode system? This will allow us to do home postal deliveries and increase e-commerce opportunities while reducing incidences of fraud.
E-commerce
Electronic Commerce (e-commerce) is about doing business electronically. It is based on the processing and transmission of data, including text, sound and video. It encompasses many diverse activities including electronic trading of goods and services, online delivery of digital content, electronic fund transfers, electronic share trading, electronic bills of lading, commercial auctions, collaborative design and engineering, online sourcing, public procurement, direct consumer marketing, and after-sales service. It involves both products (e.g., consumer goods, specialised medical equipment) and services (e.g. information services, financial and legal services); traditional activities (e.g., healthcare, education) and new activities (e.g. virtual malls).
UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) study of E-commerce
The ECA, in close collaboration with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) commissioned a “Pan-African Initiative on e-Commerce” to be carried out during 2000. The aim of the mission was to investigate and report on:
- National E-commerce Vision and Strategy
- National Regulatory Policy ;
- Accelerating Private Investment in E-commerce
- Targeted Support for SMEs and Special Target Groups
- Creating an E-commerce Labour Pool
- Domestic and pan-African E-commerce Research Capacity
I was contracted by the IRDC during June of 1999 to be the Namibian consultant. The Southern African Mission, comprising Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa was completed during the next year and became part of the pan-African report. The report was tabled at a Ministers conference of the ECA.
In short the following were identified as the government policies which have a detrimental effect on the proliferation of e-commerce in these countries. They include:
- The insistence of governments to hold onto and protect inefficient state owned telephone networks. This results in inferior and high communications costs making e-commerce activities unnecessarily costly and uncompetitive.
- The lack of government strategy or support to develop world class enterprises. A poor business, even if connected to the web and e-commerce enabled, will not succeed in a competitive world. Companies in LDCs are ignorant of international opportunities, the needs of those markets and how to service them properly.
- Governments should be doing more to help enterprises identify international opportunities and take advantage of them.
- Government insistence in maintaining ownership and management of logistics networks such as ports and airports resulting in inefficient, costly and unreliable services, which are incompatible with an e-commerce environment.
- Bureaucratic export and import procedures result in lengthy customs clearance times which nullify the benefits of speed in transactions offered by e-commerce. This affects service levels and increases the cost of business operations.
- Restrictions on imports and exports such as permits and licences, and the time taken to obtain these permits, place barriers in the way of fast efficient e-commerce activities.
- Lack of progress in setting government institutions, such as the Customs department, to accept customs declarations electronically. This forces e-commerce enabled companies to produce paper and undermines the concept of paperless trading.
- Although a number of African LDCs have already made great strides in abolishing exchange controls, some still exist and provide a barrier for transacting in a foreign currency on the Internet.
- Lack of an e-commerce friendly legal framework to provide recourse for companies. Current laws do not accommodate electronic contracts and signatures. Most LDCs do not have legislation that deals with e-commerce concerns including enforceability of the validity of electronic contracts, digital signatures
Suffice to say, many of these barriers still exist today in Namibia
E-commerce is leapfrogging's litmus test because it represents the culmination and confluence of hardware, software, and process engineering. To have e-commerce, a country needs rich computer infrastructure, a functioning telecommunications network, and cheap access to the Internet. Its citizens need to be reasonably computer literate, possess both a consumerist mentality and a modicum of trust between the players in the economy - and hold credit cards.[ii]
ICT in Namibia
The (then) Ministry of Information and Broadcasting hosted a national conference under the theme “ICT for Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development”. The conference took place on 2 and 3 August 2007. The Namibian Communications Commission, together with the ICT Alliance arranged the conference where a broad spectrum of stakeholders discussed the ICT status in the country and made recommendations of the way forward to ensure that Namibia properly gets on board and reaps the benefits offered by the Information Society.
Objectives:
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting set out the following objectives for the Conference:
• To assess the current reality of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in Namibia
• To identify the challenges and opportunities for ICT in the country
• To propose ways in which ICT can contribute to poverty alleviation and sustainable development in Namibia
• And ultimately, to identify how ICT can assist Namibia in achieving its Vision 2030
Lastly, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting expects practical recommendations to assist Government in preparing a roadmap to accelerate economic development and prosperity for all.
Recommendations
These are the broad outlines of the recommendations proposed during the Conference. (The appendix includes all recommendations made by the break-away groups). These must be further expanded in a table of activities must not only include “Broad policy” but also “activity specific” proposals.
- Consolidation of overall ICT governance
- Free / Libre Open Source Software policy must be adopted
- Copyright legislation must be amended to include Creative Commons licensing
- Development of Broadband access (infrastructure) be accelerated
- Separate infrastructure ownership and usage
- Universal Service Fund must be clearly defined and administered
- Local companies must get preference in tenders
- E-commerce (electronic transactions) law must be passed
- Privacy and data protection must be addressed
- Top-level domain administration must be administered better
- Broadcasting policy must be created
- Investigate Tax incentives for ICT skills development
The report was given to the Namibian Cabinet and a directive was issued to create the Cabinet Taskforce on ICT within the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies. A programme of work has been developed and a budget is being prepared to enable the taskforce to complete its duties.
A full copy of the report is available from the website of the ICT Alliance, www.ictalliance.org.na.
[i] For further reading see: "Modern Economic Problems" - Frank Albert Fetter, Professor of Economics, Princeton University, 1916
[ii] Cyclopedia Of Economics, 2nd EDITION, Sam Vaknin, Ph.D