The Namibian Competition Commission (NaCC) says it is investigating a tripartite deal signed between Namibia Power Corporation (NamPower), Telecom Namibia Limited (Telecom), and Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC) more than 10 years ago.
The Commission is probing the three companies for alleged exclusive dealings in dark fibre infrastructure.
NamPower, Telecom Namibia and MTC entered into a “Tripartite agreement” on the 1st of June 2012 for the lease and use of NamPower’s dark optic fibre infrastructure by Telecom and MTC as the “Joint Operators”. The deal was terminated in 2022.
“The Namibian Competition Commission (Commission) on 10 February 2023 resolved to initiate an investigation against Namibia Power Corporation Propriety Limited (NamPower), Telecom Namibia Limited (Telecom Namibia) and Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC) in terms of Section 33 of the Namibian Competition Act No. 2 of 2003 (the Act), for alleged exclusive dealings in the dark optic fibre infrastructure,” the Authority said this week.
The agreement allegedly allowed Telecom Namibia and MTC the exclusive use of their propositional share of the dark optic fibre infrastructure, for a duration of 10 years from the date of commencement of the agreement.
As such, NaCC seeks to determine whether the Tripartite Agreement entered into by the companies, amounts to anti-competitive conduct.
“The parties have been informed of the Commission’s investigation and have been afforded an opportunity to respond to the allegations. Upon receipt of the responses, the Commission will proceed with its investigation and thereafter determine the relevant cause of action as provided for by the Act.”
This comes as NamPower in its FY2022 results revealed that the tripartite agreement between NamPower, MTC and Telecom Namibia for access to NamPower’s ‘dark fibre’ has been terminated after the contract came to an end in May 2022.
Subsequently, NamPower established The Grid Online in 2019, providing access to its fibre network to the telecommunications industry.
The dark fibre tripartite agreement was established in 2012, providing access to some of NamPower’s spare capacity on its national fibre network (‘dark fibre’) at low cost.
Previously, NamPower received N$7.4 million for this access according to Cirrus Capital data, but total optic fibre lease revenue doubled in FY2022 to N$15.3 million, driven by five new companies joining the Grid Online, at an average price of N$788,600 per month per client.
