CRAN plans for future

The Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) is crafting its strategic plan for 2012/2013. In order to benchmark itself against other regulatory authorities in the SADC region, CRAN held talks with the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) this week.
According to Stanley Shanapinda, CEO of CRAN, the two organisations will sign a memorandum of understanding to cement their relationship and will cooperate with each other in the areas of cross-border frequency management, training and development, harmonisation of regulations and policies in SADC as well as type approvals for equipment.
Shanapinda said that one of the main reasons for engaging ICASA, is to tap into the knowledge, resources and experiences of ICASA, which has been in existence for much longer than CRAN. On his part, Themba Dlamini, ICASA’s CEO, said the Namibian regulator can learn a lot from its South African counterpart.
“CRAN must look at the mistakes which ICASA has made in the past and learn from them,” he said.
ICASA is the regulator of telecommunications, broadcasting and postal services and aims to ensure that all South Africans have access to high quality services at affordable prices. CRAN will be entering into a strategic planning phase as of Monday, 12 March for the rest of the month.
CRAN was established in 2009 through an Act of Parliament. The most pertinent issues the regulatory authority has to deal with currently are Telecom Namibia’s bid to buy Leo and MTC’s plans to launch 4G technology in the country.