ZIMBABWE’s government has refused responsibility for the banning of ISP licences and has blamed economic factors as the cause.

Alfred Marisa, of the government owned Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) contacted ZimEye last week and stated that the POTRAZ Board recently resolved to suspend acceptance of new applications for the Internet Access Class A licences. He said that the decision to suspend new applications  is because the Zimbabwean  market is too small to accomodate many licences.

Marisa says the Authority opened up licencing of new class of licence (Internet Access Provider Class A) IAP, this year and invited applications from interested parties. Interested parties were also invited to apply for the upgrading of their IAP’s.  Parties namely,  Africom, Tele Contract, Powertel, Ecoweb, broadband and telone applied.

However, some applications were to no avail. Marisa claims that Zimbabwe’s ISP market is oversubscribed, and that it is not sufficient  for all players to operate profitably.

According to Marisa, Zimbabwe only licences IAP’s backbone providers rather than ISP’s and that the Authority may resume acceptance of new applications once it is “satisfied that it is necessary” to do so. On their website, PORTRAZ vow

“To be an effective and efficient world class regulator of the Postal and Telecommunication sector in Zimbabwe.”

By ZIMEYE