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1.0 Policy Aims
This Statement sets out a National Policy for the development of communications services, covering telecommunications, postal and broadcasting services. Central to this policy will be the growing contributions of communications to the social and economic development of Malawi and to the reduction of disparities between urban and rural areas. In relation to all these forms of communications, the fundamental aim of the Malawi Government, through the Ministry of Information, which is responsible for the Communications Sector, is to ensure that a full range of modern services is accessible by all the population of Malawi.
To achieve this aim, it is necessary to accelerate the rate of investment in infrastructure, to focus the efforts of service providers more closely on the needs of users and to re-organize the existing institutions in the sector so that they are better equipped to meet the challenges that lie ahead.
To harmonize operations in the sector, the Malawi Government will establish a regulatory authority Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) to regulate telecommunications posts, broadcasting and the radio frequency spectrum.
1.1 Telecommunications
Telecommunications is expected to make a leading contribution to national development, and is also of increasing importance to business.
Accordingly, the Ministry will make sure that telecommunication services are provided efficiently and in sufficient quantity, and are of a quality and variety that meet the economic and social needs of the country at affordable prices. The Ministry expects the standards of service to match the best in Africa.
To achieve these objectives, the Ministry has set the following targets-
| (a) |
to increase the number of working telephone lines to not less than 150,000 by the end of year 2003 and to reach two lines for every one hundred people as soon as possible after that date |
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Many more people want to use the telephone network than can do so at present. Many areas of the country are also not well serviced. A five-year programme of expansion will be agreed with Malawi Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (MPTC). MPTC will be enabled to raise finance and to seek technical assistance from whatever sources are available, private as well as public, in order to expand the provision of basic telephone service to the level justified by demand. In future other operators will be authorized to install and operate public networks with such conditions as shall be imposed under licence. |
| (b) |
To raise quality of service to international standards |
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At present, the telephone network suffers from congestion and a high level of faults. Investment in modern facilities will do much to improve quality of services. But a more business-like management of the network is also essential to maintain high standards. |
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In addition, the new regulatory arrangements set out below will include specific targets for the key aspects of quality of service, which will be rigorously monitored and enforced. |
| (c) |
to stimulate the provision of new services within Malawi |
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Access to the Internet and to the growing variety of data and other value added services has become vital for business services and the community at large. The provision of these non-basic telephone services (presently-Internet, e-mail, data, paging, etc.) will be liberalized immediately so that the people of Malawi can take full advantage of these new opportunities without restriction. |
| (d) |
to reduce the price of telecommunication services in real terms |
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Expansion and modernization of the network with new technology will make it possible for the prices charged for basic telephone services to be lower in real terms. |
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If MPTC is successful in improving its efficiency, this will ensure that its services are competitively priced while allowing a reasonable return on investment. |
| (e) |
to extend access to modem telecommunication services throughout the country according to a defined programme covering rural areas |
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The National Operator has an obligation to extend access to the network and to services into rural areas. Because of the cost, this cannot be achieved overnight. |
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To make progress, a programme will be prepared and targets agreed with MPTC for the provision for public telecommunication facilities in rural areas, through payphones, community phones and other means. In addition, community information centres bringing together public telecommunications and other means of access to information will be developed in rural areas. |
| (f) |
to open up the provision of telecommunication services to the private sector |
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The National Operator will continue to be primarily responsible for the infrastructure required supporting public telecommunications. But the service themselves will be liberalized. In addition to other non-basic telephone services, it is envisaged that second cellular mobile radio service and local telephone network operators will be licensed. Consideration will be given to a second national fixed network operator in due course. |
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| To promote these objectives, the Ministry has already embarked on the restructuring of the telecommunications sector. The principal elements of the restructuring strategy in terms of priority are- |
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(i) the establishment of an independent regulatory body which will license operators and service providers; |
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(ii) the re-organization of the existing network operations along commercial lines; |
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(iii) the separation of posts from telecommunications; and |
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(iv) the introduction of private capital, management and technical expertise with the objective of eventual privatization of the National Operator. |
MPTC's telecommunications business will be transferred to a new company, Malawi Telecom, to be set up under the Companies Act as an autonomous commercial entity.
Malawi Telecom will initially be 100 per cent owned by the Government, but consideration will be given to how best to allow the private sector to participate in its activities.
Postal services will continue to be provided by a statutory corporation, to be called Malawi Posts.
To enable this strategy to be implemented, Parliament will be asked to enact fresh legislation. Under its provisions, MPTC will divest itself of direct responsibility for the regulation of telecommunications. This responsibility will be assumed by an autonomous entity, the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA). In future, all telecommunication services will be provided on a commercial basis, by businesses, which will be accountable to their owners and to MACRA through the licensing process. The effective separation of regulation from operations should offer a strong reassurance for users, staff, potential investors and the general public that the improvement of the provision of services will have over riding priority.
1.2 Postal Services
The national postal network should play a major role in improving communications in Malawi and serve to bind the country together. The postal network has a particular economic and social significance in rural areas in ensuring access to a wide range of public services.
The separation of posts from telecommunications and the strategy of commercialization will be of particular benefit to Malawi Posts. To date, Posts has been the Cinderella service of MPTC, given a lower priority and regarded as uncommercial. Yet, in other countries (e.g. Botswana and Tanzania) where the postal service has been given autonomy, it has been conclusively shown that it is possible to provide an efficient national postal service servicing all the people without it being a permanent drain on public funds. That must be the aim for Malawi as well.
It will be necessary to ensure that Malawi Posts can cover its costs. Work has already begun on identifying the true scale of the losses of the postal service. Once
this has been done and a true extent of deficit has been identified, it may be necessary for the Malawi Government to provide a subvention to Malawi Posts for a transitional period. By the end of that period, Malawi Posts should have taken the necessary steps to balance its books.
The new policy of Malawi Posts shall be to provide postal services, which are characterized by speed, security, reliability and efficiency and should also be affordable to the majority of the people with a reasonable return on investment.
| In order to achieve these policy aims, the Ministry will ensure that Malawi Posts offers postal services compared to the best in the industry by- |
| 1.2.1 |
institutional restructuring; |
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focusing on customer needs and commercial strategies; |
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improving quality of services and operations; |
| 1.2.4 |
increasing productivity and achieving customer driven postal services, and also devising quality of services according to international standards; and |
| 1.2.5 |
extending the financial services provided in Post Offices, e.g. by introducing Post Office Savings throughout Malawi. |
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| This initiative will help achieve certain targets, among them- |
| (a) |
the delivery of 80 per cent of mail on the following day after date of posting |
| (b) |
the extension of express mail service to (rural areas; |
| (c) |
the facilitation of easy tracking and tracing of mail items through improved access, by Malawi Posts to national and international mail networks; |
| (d) |
the increase in the number of private boxes throughout the country and according to demand from the present 45,000 to 100,000 by the year 2002; |
| (e) |
the increase in the number of outlets providing postal services in order to achieve the objective of "not to travel more than 10 kilometers to the nearest postal service"; |
| (f) |
the introduction of new services including agency services; and |
| (g) |
the introduction of cost-related tariffs within 5 years. |
1.3 Broadcasting
The fundamental aim of the Malawi Government, acting through the Ministry of Information which is responsible for Broadcasting, is to ensure that a full range of broadcasting services are available to the population of Malawi.
| To achieve this aim, the Ministry has set itself the following objectives- |
| (a) |
MBC should act as the national public broadcaster, embracing radio and television; |
| (b) |
a diverse range of sound and television broadcasting services should be provided in the new democratic Malawi; |
| (c) |
overage of FM radio broadcasting will be ensured by the issue of separate licences in relation to every centre of population in Malawi, but only to local operators; and |
| (d) |
broadcasting services should be regulated in the best interest of the public. |
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MBC will be reconstituted with new arrangements for its management and operations to meet these objectives. MACRA will be responsible for regulating broadcasting.
1.4 Radio Frequency Spectrum
The radio frequency spectrum is a vital national asset and a scarce resource that should be utilized in the interest of the Malawi nation in conformity with the international treaties and conventions to which Malawi subscribes.
It is therefore necessary to have an efficient mechanism for regulating, administering, controlling, monitoring and enforcing proper use of the radio frequency spectrum in order to maximise spectrum usage and prevent interference.
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| (a) |
manage the radio frequency spectrum: |
| (b) |
allocate the radio frequency spectrum among alternative users; |
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co-ordinate the radio frequencies locally and internationally; |
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set rules and regulations governing the radio frequencies; |
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licence, assign and administer the radio frequencies; |
| (f) |
monitor the radio frequency spectrum; and |
| (g) |
set and collect fees for the use of radio frequencies. |
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