Page 86 - SAMENA Trends - January 2021

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

A SNAPSHOT OF REGULATORY ACTIVITIES

IN THE SAMENA REGION

Afghanistan

Although Afghanistan continues to be confronted by numerous a significant impact on production and supply chains globally.
challenges, largely due to the material effects of many years of war During the coming year the telecoms sector to various degrees is
and civil strife, there have been successes in the country’s efforts likely to experience a downturn in mobile device production, while
to rebuild infrastructure and create a functional telecom sector. it may also be difficult for network operators to manage workflows
Telecom services now cover over 90% of the population, though when maintaining and upgrading existing infrastructure. Overall
penetration rates remain relatively low. Efforts continue on rolling progress towards 5G may be postponed or slowed down in some
out fixed-line services, but these are limited to outside the main countries. On the consumer side, spending on telecoms services
urban areas and thus the country heavily relies on mobile network and devices is under pressure from the financial effect of large-
infrastructure. The government has been supported by the World scale job losses and the consequent restriction on disposable
Bank and a range of other donors to develop a nationwide fiber incomes. However, the crucial nature of telecom services, both for
backbone. Afghanistan now has terrestrial cable connectivity to general communication as well as a tool for home-working, will
five neighboring countries, while work on the ‘Wakhan Corridor Fiber offset such pressures. In many markets the net effect should be a
Optic Survey Project’ to connect to China is nearing completion. steady though reduced increased in subscriber growth. Although
The mobile market showed reasonably strong growth between it is challenging to predict and interpret the long-term impacts
2012 and 2017 but faced a serious slowdown in 2018, with the of the crisis as it develops, these have been acknowledged in the
number of subscribers falling 8% year-on-year. This was partly industry forecasts contained in this report. The report also covers
due to increasing violence in the country (creating population the responses of the telecom operators as well as government
displacement as well as damage to infrastructure), and also to a agencies and regulators as they react to the crisis to ensure that
downturn in the regional economy. Insurgent activity continues to citizens can continue to make optimum use of telecom services.
degrade telecom infrastructure, mainly in damage done to mobile This can be reflected in subsidy schemes and the promotion of
towers. However, there were positive signs of recovery in 2019, tele-health and tele-education, among other solutions.
with slow subscriber growth despite the uncertainty created by Key developments:
the presidential election. The Covid-19 pandemic contributed to a • Regulator and Ministry of Communications develop new policy
fall in the number of mobile subscribers in 2020, and the segment to improve telecom QoS;
is expected to remain under pressure well into 2021. Afghanistan • Salaam Telecom launches its LTE service in some areas of
has seen a strong increase in mobile broadband penetration Kabul;
over the past few years, with penetration reaching 22% in 2019 • Progress made with the Wakhan Corridor Fiber Optic Survey
compared to only 1% in 2013. The sector is still at an early stage Project;
of development and penetration remains relatively low compared • Report update includes the regulator’s market data to March
to other Asian nations. As with the mobile sector, the number of 2020, operator data to Q2 2020, Telecom Maturity Index charts
mobile broadband subscribers has been affected by the pandemic and analyses, assessment of the global impact of Covid-19 on
though slow growth is expected to return in the sector after 2022. the telecoms sector, recent market developments.
BuddeComm notes that the outbreak of the Coronavirus is having (January 20, 2021) developingtelecoms.com

Algeria

The Telecoms Minister Brahim Boumzar stated this week that a included provisions supporting number portability but its
decree to implement number portability is being finalized, with a implementation has been delayed. The telecoms authorities are
draft version currently being studied by the regulator before being now accelerating the process to introduce portability to help
sent to the General Secretariat, with the expectation of the service encourage network operators to improve their service quality and
being launched this year. A telecoms reform act, Law 18-04 of May coverage via the ramping up of competition.
2018 (‘General rules on post and electronic communications’), (January 15, 2021) Agence Ecofin

86 JANUARY 2021