The Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) will lift an imposed stand-still period of the awarding of new telecommunication and broadcasting licenses, an executive has said.
The temporary suspension, which came into effect in October 2022, was imposed so that the CRAN could collect data from the market to assess whether the markets are saturated.
“The stand-still period for applications for broadcasting and telecommunications licenses will be lifted effective October 1. Thereafter, all applications for licenses in these categories shall be accepted and considered,” Katrina Sikeni, communications and consumer relations executive at the CRAN, said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
According to Sikeni, the study was conducted based on a fixed data set, particularly the number of telecommunications and broadcasting service licensees currently in the market, and hence the stand-still period.
“The data collection has been completed, and (the) CRAN will resume consideration of new applications,” she added.
Sikeni meanwhile said it is paramount that the CRAN continuously studies market dynamics to align the regulatory framework to best practices and emerging trends in regulation to ensure fair competition and facilitate investments into the sector. Enditem