MINISTRY OF WORKS, TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATION
8.9 PRICES AND TARIFFS ARE REGULATED IN CERTAIN
MARKET SEGMENTS DURING THE INITIAL PHASE OF THE
RESTRUCTURING PROCESS. |
Justification. In a liberalised market with open and free competition,
competitive forces will determine prices and tariffs and there will be no
need for any regulation. This scenario, however, is not likely to occur in
all segments of the market and especially not at the onset of the
restructuring process.
Implications. Price regulation and control is a cumbersome task and will
be a heavy burden for the Regulatory Authority if all telecommunications
services are to be regulated. It will defeat the purpose of competition and
it will be difficult to determine the level of tariffs which will achieve the
goal of universal service at affordable prices and at the same time allow
for rapid expansion of networks and services.
Since it is impossible at this point in time to predict to what extent full
competition is going to take place in various market segments, interim
measures along the following lines should be introduced.
i) No price control on;
- terminal equipment
- storage and forwarding of facsimile services
- public telephor~e boxes
- packet switched data services
- electronic mail services
- paging services
ii) Price control on;
- national long-distance services
- cellular telephone services
- local network services.
Prices should be deemed fair and reasonable if they reflect recovery of
the investment in the medium to long term perspective.
The above measures require close monitoring of price formations in the
industry and customers are likely to be the best watch-dogs of abuse or
exploitation.
8.10 A MANDATORY LICENSING SYSTEM FOR ALL
NETWORKS AND SERVICES IS INTRODUCED.
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TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY FOR BOTSWANA