The Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) has awarded a 4Th mobile licence to Beeline Telecoms Limited.
ZICTA Director General Patrick Mutimushi said Beeline, a wholly Zambian owned company is required to commence operations within six months failure to which, the international network and national service licence will be revoked.
According to information made available to Zambian Business Times-ZBT, Mutimushi said this was in line with its regulatory mandate under the ICT ACT No. 15 of 2009, which includes the promotion of competition in the ICT sector.
He also said the decision by the authority 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.
He added that the authority 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.
Mutimushi said after a thorough evaluation process, the authority awarded Beeline Telecoms Limited the licence after it met the minimum criteria.
He said 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.
He added that unfortunately, UZI Zambia failed to commence operations by March 3, 2019 which was the final deadline issued by the authority adding that this was notwithstanding two earlier deadline extensions, the first being November 30, 2019 and the second May 30, 2020.
Mutimushi said since UZI Zambia’s licence was cancelled and the challenges affecting the sector have continued, ZICTA re-embarked on seeking to licence a fourth mobile operator which led to the issuance of a licence to Beeline Telecom Limited.
