LEGAL AND LICENSING>>>Departmental Report

Management of the legal and regulatory arm of the Commission have over the last two years took part in two study tours in the sub-region - Nigeria and Senegal and attended an Executive Training Programme in Ghana alongside other Directors and Commissioners in the commission's quest to build and strengthen capacity to efficiently fulfil NATCOM's mandate under the Act. The Commission took an effective part in two meetings of the ECOWAS Commission on the ECOWAS Supplementary Acts in Lome, Togo and Praia, Cape Verde. Representatives of the Commission represented the country alongside the Deputy Minister of Information and Communications and the Ag. Director of Communications at the 8th Meeting of ECOWAS Ministers of Telecommunications and ICT in Dakar, Senegal from 28th September to 2nd October 2009. The Commission held numerous meetings with both GSM operators and ISP's in charting the regulatory way forward and dispatched a plethora of correspondences relating to compliance with the provisions of the Act. Our interactions with colleagues in the sub region has demonstrated that there is a lot more to be done to catch up with other countries who are far ahead in establishing the structures and processes for effective regulation.

The main object of the Legal and Regulatory arm of the Commission in the ensuing year is to sustain the ongoing process of establishing the structures and processes necessary for the Commission to perform its licensing, regulatory and adjudicatory role much more effectively and in enforcing the provisions of the Telecoms Act 2006 more robustly in the interest of both the consumers and/or users of telecoms services and the operators and service providers of those services. In this regard the department held an eight days workshop involving all stakeholders and assisted by a national and an international ITU consultant on regulatory matters to help out with the drafting of a wide-ranging set of regulations for the industry covering the following areas recommended by both the World Bank Report and the ECOWAS Supplementary Acts namely:

Another Consultant on numbering provided training in June 2009 and advised on the structure and content of a comprehensive legal and regulatory framework on the management of numbers that takes cognizance of both best practice and the provisions of the ECOWAS Supplementary Acts. The final enactments took heed of the views and comments of all stakeholders pursuant to the draft Regulations on Consultations, the ECOWAS Supplementary Acts and the best practice regionally and globally. Based on the Commission's assessment of the Act and taking into consideration the likely relative benefits of greater predictability and clarity associated with the issuance of specific regulations by subject matter, the draft regulations referred to above have been concluded, reviewed by the Parliamentary draftsman and transmitted to the ECOWAS Commission for approval of the substance of the proposed amendments to the Act and the draft secondary legislations.

Licensed GSM Operators in the Country attempted to increase their tariffs on two occasions in the month of April 2009. Their justification for the proposed tariff increase was an adjustment of their prevailing tariff to the spiralling foreign exchange rate resulting from the global economic downturn. In this regard the Commission has contracted the services of PKF an accounting and business consultancy firm to do a comprehensive study of the industry, market and economy and advice on a fair and equitable formula for the computation of tariffs and in determining future increments. The greatest challenge still facing the regulator is protecting the consumer from high cost of telecoms services. In this regard the Commission continues to engage Operators and Service Providers to reduce their tariffs and the relatively high interconnection rates while exploiting feasible means of landing fibre optic cable in the country and building a solid fibre optic national back bone. Government has granted permission to two interested parties and the incumbent operator to proceed in this direction and MOU's have been executed to facilitate these projects. Government and the regulator are still open to new initiatives and projects in this regard.

The Telecoms Act mandates telecoms operators to submit copies of their interconnection agreements together with a summary of its principal terms to the Commission who should publish it by government notice. In this regard the Commission during the period under review contacted all GSM operators in the country to submit their interconnection agreements pursuant to the Act with positive response from all existing active telecoms operators. With regards to interconnection, collocation and infrastructure sharing, the Commission held two interactive sessions with Operators and Service Providers in the industry which has yielded some progress on those issue and several others bordering on compliance with the provisions of the Act and the extant licence agreement entered into with new entrants in the industry and which the Commission will soon impress on existing operators through a negotiated settlement. The Commission succeeded in convincing Operators to reduce their interconnection rates from 13 US cents to 10 US cents in 2009 and negotiations are ongoing for future reductions to that rate.

The Commission has approved new standard application forms for the provision and operation of telecoms networks and services respectively, which are now in force. Since its inception NATCOM has awarded GSM and CDMA licences to Ambitel, Rawabi Dubai, Intergroup Telecommunications Company Ltd. and SierraTel. The Commission has cancelled the Licence awarded to Datatel and later conditionally transferred to Celcom. A hand book and a check list on the procedural requirements for licensing with the Commission has been approved by the Commission and are now available online with electronic application forms A new restructured Legal/Licensing Department has been created by the Board of Commissioners in its ongoing restructuring of the Management of the Commission. The new Organogram came into effect in June 2009. In this regard the department will in the New Year create an effective licensing unit with effective and transparent internal procedures aimed at enhancing future licensing services to interested investors in the sector. With regards licensing new 3G and other emerging technologies the Commission will establish guidelines in the coming year to effectively address the enormous challenges ahead in regulating emerging technologies and services.

The nation's only international gateway is by virtue of the provisions of the Act owned and operated by the incumbent operator - the Sierra Leone Telecommunications Company Ltd (SierraTel) for a period of two years after the commencement of the Act on the 3rd August 2006, after which the Commission is tasked with the responsibility of renewing that privilege. The Act also empowers the chairperson to review the incumbent operator's continued ownership and operation of the only installation after the expiration of the period. In this regard therefore both the Chairperson and the Commission are tasked with both reviewing the continued ownership and operation of the gateway and to renew their continued operation respectively. The Commission is fully apprised of its legal obligation under the Act to review and where possible renew the tenure of the incumbent operator's ownership and operation of the sole international gateway. The Commission continues to encourage comments and suggestions from stakeholders on this issue so as to enable it make an informed decision in any future review and/or renewal of the incumbent's continued sole ownership and control of the gateway.

The Legal Department working in concert with the World Bank consultants on institutional reform has prepared draft guidelines on industry consultation as a major pillar in modern day telecoms regulation. The Commission has approved the final draft which has been reviewed and approved by the Consultant / Parliamentary Draftsman. This regulation came into force later in the year.

The Telecoms Act established the Universal Access Fund to consist of a percentage of the gross income of service providers as declared for income tax purposes to be determined by the Minister by statutory instrument. The Commission is also tasked with providing annual objectives for services to be provided from the fund with the purpose of ensuring that such services and, in particular, basic telephone service is accessible to the widest number of users.

Various legal instruments were executed during the year under review. These included lease agreements for the provincial and District branches of NATCOM, A conveyance for the purchase of the Commission headquarters offices at 13 Regent Road, Hill Station in Freetown, series of miscellaneous agreements to do with procurement of equipments, goods and services and the refurbishment, rehabilitation and construction works undertaken by the Commission in expanding the activities of the Commission to make it more responsive and effective in regulating a dynamic sector.

Telecoms Act 2006