REFORMS IN THE ICT SECTOR
Part 11
THEPatriotic Front in its 2021-26 political manifesto has shown unwavering political will to carry on with improving Information Communication Technology.
In general, the 2016-21 reforms focused on mainstreaming Information Commutation technology in different sectors of the economy especially in the era of the nation ravaged by the coronavirus which has compelled the adaption of the digital world.
One of the priorities in the 2021-22 national planning, the Government intends to carry on with construction of more than 1, 000 communication towers coupled with investments in fibre and telecommunication sites.
With regard to the path to digital migration, the government intend to introduce a higher internet connectivity and it intends to issue a licence for 800 MHz band spectrum. This will be one of the fruits of digital migration.
In the telecommunication sector, there will be liberalisation of the industry and a regulatory framework will be revised to allow more
players, a gesture which will promote competition in the sector and in turn improve service delivery and reduce the costs of accessing the telecommunication services.
To lessen the costs of running telecommunication business, the government intends to review the penalties that were levied against the Mobile service providers by the Zambia Information Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) who
offer poor quality services to enhance quality of services. The consumers of ICT services will be at the receiving end of the quality information service.
It should be appreciated that the sufficient investments which the PF government has attained in the ICT fraternity has contributed in helping mitigating the hardships which would have been caused by Covid.
During Covid, day to day human activities could not
grind to a halt but the investment in ICT provided for continuity of the human activities and notably, people had the facilities to enable them work away from the work environment.
It is therefore important that we continue with the same path that will sustain the investment in ICT which has emerged as the basis to sustain human activities without physical contact.