Page 140 - SAMENA Trends - February 2020

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

is responsible for enabling the country’s digital transformation for he added. The new sense of control is due to Nutanix’s one-
all of its public bodies and entities. Cloud computing will be the click infrastructure management console, Prism, which allows
fulcrum upon which the country’s digital economy is leveraged. users to seamlessly and easily monitor all virtual environments
Migrating to Nutanix’s enterprise cloud platform has enabled the running on AOS. The dashboard is designed to simplify and
Jordanian government to trouble shoot a number of key snagging streamline common workflows, and to make hypervisor and VM
points and bottlenecks. “We had problems with updates, upgrades management as easy as checking email, a Nutanix spokesman
and expansions,” explained Abdallah Al-Farrayih, MoDEE’s said. “With Nutanix, we can easily integrate with many platforms,”
operations manager. “After moving to the Nutanix Cloud, we could Mr. Al-Farrayih added. “And we can use the built-in features in
manage all of our infrastructure from a single location – storage, Nutanix related to security and backup.”
network, virtual machines, everything from a single dashboard,” (February 3, 2020) commsmea.com

Morocco

The National Agency of Telecommunications Regulation (Agence and fixed broadband segments. The ANRT first published the
Nationale de Reglementation de Telecom, ANRT) has published rules governing LLU in Morocco in June 2014. Under the new
its decision on the referral made by Inwi (Wana) against fixed regulations, Maroc Telecom is required to provide colocation
line incumbent Maroc Telecom (registered as Itissalat Al- for third-party operators’ equipment in its existing cabinets,
Maghrib, or IAM) for anti-competitive practices concerning install multi-operator cabinets for part of their future nodes and
the implementation of the country’s local loop unbundling establish an active wholesale offer for third-party operators
(LLU) regulations. After an in-depth examination of the various under a virtual unbundled local access (VULA) model. While
elements of the investigation report, which commenced in May Maroc Telecom was initially required to provide a technical and
2017, the ANRT Management Committee concluded that Maroc tariff wholesale offer for passive access to its fixed local loop by
Telecom’s actions had prevented and delayed its competitors 1 August 2014, it was accused of failing to publish the required
from accessing LLU and the fixed broadband market since 2013. documents on numerous occasions. In January 2017 Inwi made
The committee judged that the behavior constituted an abuse of a formal complaint to the ANRT over Maroc Telecom’s failure to
dominant position, which is prohibited by the provisions of Article comply with the LLU regulations. The move follows a previous
7 of Law No.104-12 and is liable to a financial penalty of MAD3.3 ANRT ruling against the incumbent (published in October 2016),
billion (USD342.9 million), entirely paid to the Treasury. The ANRT which ordered Maroc Telecom to open up its fixed line network
will also compel Maroc Telecom to implement other measures to alternative operators willing to provide LLU services; the
or face daily fines in the event of non-compliance; the goal is regulator’s move was prompted by a complaint filed by Orange
to allow the development of competition in the fixed telephony Morocco (formerly known as Meditel). (February 3, 2020) commsupdate.com

Nepal

Nepal’s telecoms regulator, the Nepal Telecommunications in the past six months, according to the Nepal Telecommunications
Authority (NTA), has revoked CG Telecom’s license to provide Authority. Around 18.6 million people were using the internet until
limited mobility services (LMS) in seven districts after the operator mid-May last year. But, as of mid-November, the number rose to
failed to renew its permits within the stipulated timeframe. The 21.1 million, according to a recent report of the regulatory body.
move means CG Telecom, which currently provides the service in In the recently launched Management Information System report,
a total of 40 districts, will no longer be able to operate in Baglung, it is said the 71.52 per cent of the total population in Nepal is
Palpa, Kanchanpur, Dadeldhura, Baitadi, Bardiya and Dailekh now connected to the internet. However, in reality, the number can
districts from 9 February. Under existing rules, operators are be less considering that some of the subscribers have more than
required to renew their license at least three months before their one internet connection. The report shows a significant rise in
current authorization expires, although it can be done after this the numbers of fixed broadband and mobile internet users, says
date on payment of a 15% fine. An LMS license enables a provider NTA director and spokesperson Min Prasad Aryal. As many as 13
to operate mobile services within a specific area or region, as the million people use Nepal Telecom’s service and 6.9 million people
SIM or number cannot be used elsewhere. use Ncell. A total of 3.5 million people are using Wi-Fi and FTTH
(February 7, 2020) commsupdate.com services collectively. Around 55.39 per cent of the population
use mobile internet, out of which the majority use the 3G service.
The number of internet users in Nepal has increased by 2.5 million (February 4, 2020) english.onlinekhabar.com

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