42
Government Gazette 16 November 2009
Act No. 8, 2009
No. 4378
COMMUNICATIONS ACT, 2009
(2)
manners:
Universal service may be specified in one or more of the following
(a)
As a minimum number of prescribed telecommunications facilities or
services that must be made available to a community of a prescribed
size;
(b)
in the form of specified equipment that should be made available in
order to cater for the telecommunications needs of a specified category
of community;
(c)
in the form of specified services to be made available to specified
categories of customers in specified categories of communities;
(d)
in the form of specified telecommunications services that are available
to the public or that are rendered to schools, hospitals, or any other
specified category of place that serves the needs of the public or that
are available for use by the public;
(e)
in the form of the deployment of any technology that will promote
the availability of telecommunications and information services in
Namibia;
(f)
in any other manner that may be necessary to specify the form, scope,
nature or any other aspect of the services in question.
(3)
Subject to subsection (4), (5) and (6), the Authority may issue an order
instructing a licensee to provide a specified form of universal service in a specified area,
subject to specified conditions.
(4)
An order referred to in subsection (3) must state whether subsidies will
be paid by the Authority from the Universal Service Fund and if subsidies will be paid,
it must state the amount thereof or the basis on which the subsidies must be calculated.
(5)
An order referred to in subsection (3) may only be issued if –
(a)
the services which the order compels the licensee to render are within
the scope of a condition imposed on its licence; or
(b)
the subsidies stated in the order will compensate the licensee for any
loss that the rendering of the services concerned will cause to it.
(6)
When issuing an order under subsection (3), the Authority must
consider universal service having been rendered by a particular licensee and the
repayment of money that was borrowed for the purpose of rendering universal service
before the commencement of this Act.
(7)
The Authority may request tenders or institute a system of competitive
bidding for the rendering of such universal service as it may think fit.
(8)
The provisions of section 41 apply with the necessary changes to
tenders and bidding contemplated in subsection (7).