MINISTRY OF WORKS, TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATION
• Within 9 months of the establishment of the authority, the
minimum requirements for handling of type approval issues
should be met.
• Within 12 months basic procedures for processing of
telecommunications licence applications should be at hand.
• Full regulatory capacity, covering all aspects of regulation, will
probably take 3-5 years to develop out once the above
requirements are met the liberalisation process can commence.
• The above time frame could be shortened considerably if
Government decides to acquire international expertise while
indigenous human resources are developed.
8.4 BTC BECOMES A COMMON CARRIER IN COMPETITION
WITH OTHER OPERATORS AND BTC'S NON-COMPETITIVE
OPERATIONS ARE REGULATED IN A PERFORMANCE
CONTRACT.
Justification. The expertise and experience accumulated in BTC should
be safeguarded for smooth transition of the industry.
Implications. Recognising the fact that BTC because of its local
expertise and well established organisation is likely to be the dominant
operator for at least the immediate future, and considering the need to
continue developing the national telecommunications network, it is
important to clearly formulate the role and functions of BTC in these
respects.
The existing telecommunications infrastructure has been developed by
and is presently operated by BTC. In a free and open telecommunication
market anyone who wants to make use of that infrastructure should be
able to do so. This raises the questions of who should maintain and
operate the infrastructure and with whom should agreements for use of
the network be worked out.
Although, operation of the national network is an area which in principle
will be open for competition, maintenance, operation and interconnection
to the network requires knowledge and information about systems and
equipment which only
BTC possesses at present. It thus seems natural initially to let BTC
manage the national network and negotiate interconnection agreements
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TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY FOR BOTSWANA