further liberalisation of the telecommunications sector. The provision of rural
telecommunications services shall be invited through a tendering process. The award
of tender should be based on cost effective technology solutions. A new licence
framework which is technology and service neutral is proposed to meet the requirement
for cost effective and logical solutions in the rural areas. Citizen empowerment is highly
desirable in the implementation of the rural program.
The strategy has identified the need to fund the implementation as well as the
operations and maintenance of the resulting infrastructure. The strategy is calling for the
establishment of a Rural Telecommunications Development Fund (RTDF) which should
be funded through public and private partnership. The RTDF, which will be managed by
an independent agency, will use direct government subsidies, operators’ levies and
some funds from BTA to provide the necessary funding for the rural telecommunications
program in the short to medium term. The government subsidy will be used initially to
fund the infrastructure build stage and the other resources will assist to provide an
ongoing operations subsidy. Even though the operator levy is recommended, additional
discussions between the Ministry of Communications, Science and Technology (MCST),
regulator and other stakeholders are required to finalize the necessary details such as
the exact amount to be contributed by each operator It is expected that the longer term
funding for the rural program will be informed by the Universal Service Policy.
A monitoring capability must be put in place to appraise the effectiveness of the rural
program. A “Program Management Dashboard” has been recommended as the main
monitoring tool to be used and managed by an independent funding agency. The
dashboard will be used to highlight problem areas in the critical indicators of service
delivery, quality of service, funding status, new requirements, and risk management.
The rural program monitoring also addresses the vital need to increase cooperation and
information sharing between the key stakeholders such as government ministries, the
regulator and operators in ensuring the success of the rural telecommunications
program.
Rural Telecommunications Strategy
26 October 2006
5