Telcos need light handed regulation -- Ericsson veep

Mobile telephony service operators hold the key to the transformation of the economy but the sector regulator must give operators freer hand to operate if the country, is to realize the full benefits of ICT, the vice president of Ericsson, Dr. Shiv Bakhshi has said.

 

According to him, the sector is over-burdened by heavy regulation which stifles the growth of the telecommunication sector which he says has a rippling effect on other sectors of the economy.

Ericsson’s Vice-President said that the telecoms sector has to be regulated intelligently, “the sector does not need a heavy-handed regulation. It should be a light handed regulation. Heavy handed regulation only stifles innovation within the sector.”

Speaking to the B&FT at the Swedish-Ghanaian ICT conference in Accra, Dr. Bakhshi said government must not “think of the telecom sector as a cow to be milked but rather a horse that will drive the body of the economy up the hill of development. If the sector is the horse, then you try to keep the sector in good health. So the government must maintain the right number of players in the market and maintain the right taxation among others.”

Telecoms companies in Ghana have continuously bemoaned the heavy taxation they are saddled with, saying that prohibits them from investing in their infrastructure for a much improved service. Last year, MTN, leading telecoms operator, contributed Gh¢ 448, 659,443 as taxes having attained a revenue of Gh¢ 1.52 billion.

“If you take too much from the operators, for example raise the spectrum cost, they will not have monies to invest after they have acquired the spectrum. What you really want is to enable the operator invest in the network, so more people have access to a richer network which will lead to improvement in services in other areas of the economy which will then generate more revenue for government.

Dr. Bakhashi added that the telecoms infrastructure in the country will improve considerably if the government makes incentives available for the network operators. He added that this will allow the “critical infrastructure to be built so that revenue can be generated on the long term of the network’s life and create social order since jobs will be created.”

The 3-day ICT conference brought together high level delegations with representatives of Swedish companies, key government stakeholders and vertical players from trade, ICT, energy and infrastructure.

The conference is part of a strategic partnership for a two-year ICT venture in Sub-Saharan Africa by the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Business Sweden and Ericsson, a world-leading provider of telecommunications equipment and services to mobile and fixed network operators. 

According to the Country Manager of Ericsson, the Andreas Karlsson, the partnership is aimed at boosting the capacity of the private sector in the area of ICT. He stated that the two-year venture aims at sharing knowledge and increasing collaboration and trade between key countries and Sweden in order to strengthen African ICT sector.

“We are looking at introducing new technologies such as machine to machine communication, technologies that allows both wireless and wired systems to communicate with other devices of the same ability as well as bringing in expertise for a short period of time to train the local staff. Part of mentorship program we are introducing.”

 

By Richard Annerquaye ABBEY

 

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