Zambia’s chances of getting a fourth mobile telecoms network operator for the past four years has suffered yet another setback after Beeline Telecoms failed to start operations within the initially designated six months and has instead asked for an extension.
The Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) has confirmed that Beeline Telecoms Limited has not commenced operations because the company asked for an extension which was granted by authority.
In an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, ZICTA Public Relations Officer Hanford Chaaba said the telecom company extension is now up-to 30 June, 2022 as the deadline for which it shall be required to commence operations.
Asked the reason for the delay and why the company had asked for an extension, Chaba did not respond by press time. This is despite the fact that even the previous failed license issued to UZI had asked for several extensions before it was finally cancelled.
ZICTA awarded a fourth mobile licence to Beeline Telecoms Limited on 19 February 2021. According to then ZICTA Director General Patrick Mutimushi, the company was required to commence operations within six months, failure to which the international network and national service licence would be revoked.
ZICTA stated after awarding the successful bidder of the licence after the UZI failure that it was in line with the authority’s regulatory mandate under the ICT ACT No. 15 of 2009, which includes the promotion of competition in the ICT sector.
The decision by the ZICTA to introduce a fourth mobile operator was arrived at after conducting an analysis of the ICT sector market from the perspective of the quality of services being offered by the incumbent licensees as well as the need, or otherwise, to raise the levels of competition among others.
To award the license to Beeline Telecoms, ZICTA invited requests for proposals and applications for a network licence under the international market segment and a service licence under the national market segment with associated resources.
The Authority stated at the time of issuance of the license that after a thorough evaluation process, the ZICTA awarded Beeline Telecoms Limited the licence after it met the minimum criteria.
A review of the initial failed Licence for the fourth mobile operator in Zambia shows that on September 4th, 2018, ZICTA, under the guidance of the Ministry of Transport and Communications issued a network licence under the international market segment and a service licence under the national market segment with associated resources to UZI Zambia.
After awarding of several extensions, UZI Zambia failed to commence operations by March 3, 2019 which was the final deadline issued by the authority and this was notwithstanding two earlier deadline extensions, the first being November 30, 2019 and the second May 30, 2020.
UZI Zambia’s licence was then cancelled and the challenges affecting the sector have continued such as reduced levels of competition, ZICTA re-embarked on seeking to licence a fourth mobile operator, which led to the issuance of a licence to Beeline Telecom Limited.
