The country's biggest mobile operator, Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC), is still feeling short changed by the government for allowing fixed operator Telecom to operate a mobile service known as Switch, it emerged this week. MTC managing director Antonio Miguel Ferreira Geraldes said this week - more than a year after Switch was launched - that competitors like MTC and Cell One still do not know under which regulations Switch operates.

The country's biggest mobile operator, Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC), is still feeling short changed by the government for allowing fixed operator Telecom to operate a mobile service known as Switch, it emerged this week.
MTC managing director Antonio Miguel Ferreira Geraldes said this week - more than a year after Switch was launched - that competitors like MTC and Cell One still do not know under which regulations Switch operates.
We want decisions made in a clear way,” he said during a presentation of his company's 2006/7 financial results.
Geraldes further said Telecom is not paying licence fees to operate Switch just like what MTC and Cell One are doing and the introduction of Switch caught his company by surprise.
“This is a controversial development since the Government of Namibia sold a 34% stake in MTC to a private entity, Portugal Telecom. The sale took place with the understanding that there will only be two mobile operators in the Namibian market for the next few years,” Geraldes said.
To add salt to the wound, the government also introduced a 15% VAT on the airtime sold to pre-paid customers.
“It was an unpopular decision, but one that was implemented by all players,” he said, adding that after the introduction of VAT, there has been a noticeable decline in pre-paid airtime bought in northern areas of the country.
Geraldes said the government must approve the draft Communications Bill, which is currently under review, in order to create certainty in the market.
Speaking at the same function, Deputy Minister of Information and Broadcasting Raphael Dinyando said the Communications Bill would be tabled in the next session of Parliament in June.
Reacting to Geraldes comments, Oiva Angula, Senior Manager: Corporate Communications and Public Relations at Telecom, said the parastatals did not make its intentions known when Portugal Telecom was negotiating to buy a stake in MTC.
“To say that the move by Telecom was controversial is not the point. They (MTC) were surprised that we acted very fast,” said Angula.
Angula explained that when Portugal Telecom was planning to buy a stake in MTC, it had in mind that the deal was going to be done before the new Communications Bill was approved by parliament, which would have required Telecom to obtain a mobile licence to enter the market.
“We acted fast before the rules were changed,” Angula told the Economist, adding that Telecom did not break any regulations in launching Switch.