BY LORETTA B MANELE
The country should have more than one regulator in the telecommunications industry says Alwyn Danitofea, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Communication and Aviation (MCA).
He raised the above during a recent interview with the paper.
Danitofea said the Telecommunications Act was enacted back in 2009 with the intention to liberalise the telecommunications industry, hence the establishment of an independent regulatory body that very much regulates the telecommunications industry.
He said since then, it has been more than 10 years now and the rate of evolution the telecommunications industry has undergone is fast compared to other industries.
Danitofea said with the arrival of digital transformation and the increased changes in technology, the review of the telecommunications Act for the telecommunications industry and ICT is important.
“To keep it up to date with the current state of play in the industry,” he said.
Danitofea said the government also sees that certain practices need to change, pointing out regulatory function as one of them.
He said, the country has one single regulator in the telecommunications industry that determines practices, ensures that there is stability in the market, that decisions made to operators are made in the best interest of Solomon Islanders and to ensure that the management of spectrum and frequency usage in Solomon Islands is in the best practices for the sake of the industry.
Danitofea said the government sees that there are some weaknesses in the system so the government intends to change the governance structure from single regulatory to multiple regulators.
He pointed out that one of the intentions of the ongoing review of the telecommunications act is to see if we can have more than one regulatory function.
Danitofea said it is important to have more than one regulator.
“During decision making, one man cannot be specialists in different things for example, marketing, technology, legal aspect of the industry and the list goes on, so it is better to have a represented view when we are making decisions,” he said.
The Permanent Secretary said they are aware of the fact that having more than one regulator will mean an increased number when it comes to bureaucracy and it will be timely and there will be an expected increase response time for them to address solutions.
However, he said the country’s experience with the industry and with certain issues that have arisen as a result of the legal framework, has led them to decide to improve good governance along with the pressing thought that the country should have more than one regulator.
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