Page 106 - SAMENA Trends - June-August 2021

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Egypt Advances 54 Places on Telecommunications Regulatory Performance

Index

Egypt has advanced by 54 places on the latest Telecommunications
Regulatory Performance Index, according to the latest report by the
International Telecommunication Union. The annual report focused
on the performance of telecom regulators around the world for the
year 2020. In the international rankings, Egypt’s National Telecom
Regulatory Authority (NTRA) now stands at 41st among 193
countries compared to 95th in 2019. The NTRA also ranked second
in Africa compared to 19th in 2019. The value of the authority’s
regulatory performance index increased to 88.5 points out of a
total of 100 points in 2020, compared to 74.5 points in 2019. In
its evaluation, the report relied on four main axes. The first axis is
organizational capacity, which shows the ability of regulators to take
regulatory and reform decisions in the market, as well as the extent
of the impartiality of the decisions it issues. The second axis relates
to regulatory frameworks, and reflects the ability to govern services
provided in the market, and the impact of the issued regulatory
procedures on the development of the work system in the market.
The third axis is related to organizational diversity, which shows the
extent of the diversity of the regulatory tasks of the regulator and
its participatory relationship with other government agencies. The
fourth axis relates to competitiveness, which shows the extent of
the ability to create an attractive competitive environment and open
new investment horizons. NTRA CEO Hossam El-Gamal said that
the improvement in the authority’s international ranking is a result
of its efforts, initiatives, and regulatory frameworks issued during
2020. These had a significant impact on raising Egypt’s international
ranking, including the NTRA’s provision of new frequency bands to
mobile companies in the TDD system. This served as a precedent
in the Egyptian market to raise the quality of communication
services provided to users. All import services and licenses were
also provided electronically, and the freedom of choice for users of
communication services was enhanced. This was encouraged by
the efforts to develop the service of transferring numbers between
mobile networks to take place within 24 hours. In addition, the
unified code *155# was launched to control the subscriptions
to or cancelling of value-added services. Alongside this, there will enhance Egypt’s leading role at international and regional
were initiatives to encourage electronic payment methods, and to levels in the field of telecommunications regulation. This will
protect the rights of telecommunications services users. Moreover, give the Egyptian telecommunications market more investment
the principle of public consultations in introducing new regulatory opportunities. It will also contribute to creating and providing
frameworks was applied to benefit from the expertise of companies an attractive investment and competitive environment, in
and bodies operating in the Egyptian telecommunications market. addition to supporting the speedy achievement of the digital
El-Gamal pointed out that the advancement of the NTRA’s ranking transformation process.

Mauritania Looking to Tighten Internet Control

The President of Mauritania, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, has law which was passed in 2016. He claims online platforms are
warned of a further tightening of state control of internet usage, being used ‘to undermine public stability, spread false rumors or
prompting criticism from human rights bodies. A report from spread hatred and incite social groups against others. The law
Ecofin says the President is looking to strengthen the cybercrime has already been used to imprison bloggers and political activists.

106 JUN-AUG 2021