Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC) has vowed to challenge the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia’s (CRAN) decision directing the company to share its infrastructure with MTN.
“We have engaged an independent consultant to study our network and provide on opinion on capacity. We know from experience based on our network intelligence and feedback from our customers that they struggle with congestion and burdening our network with another operator will severely compromise our customer service promise,” MTC Chief Human Capital & Corporate Affairs Officer, Tim Ekandjo, said on Friday.
Ekandjo also explained that MTC considered its obligation to share infrastructure whenever it rolls out new sites and approached all operators to co-build, including MTN, “who was not interested in taking up the offer, which is a clear sign that they have no interest in investing in their own infrastructure.”
“The question whether an operator has enough capacity to host a national roaming is common. To enable this infrastructure sharing, MTC would have to invest more in its network. You can host anything, including a national roaming agreement. The question is how much more must you invest and is there a reasonable business case to support these incremental investments?”.
The pronouncement by MTC comes after CRAN is reported to have ruled in favour of MTN in its long running infrastructure sharing dispute with the telco. MTC stands accused of declining MTN’s request to utilise MTC’s infrastructure for national roaming purposes.
However, MTC argued that it does not have capacity to share its infrastructure.
Earlier this month, CRAN CEO, Emilia Nghikembua warned that the regulatory body could be forced to enforce existing regulations to ensure that dominant players in the sector comply with infrastructure sharing regulations introduced in October 2016.
MTC is currently a dominant player in the Namibian mobile market , with a 90% market share, while MTN’s plans to launch a rival network have failed to takeoff the ground since it was awarded a licence by CRAN in 2014.
