Infrastructure sharing can improve telecoms services

INFRASTRUCTURE sharing is increasingly becoming a necessary requirement and the most viable business model in the telecommunications industry. Its benefits for both consumers and service providers are now impossible to ignore.

Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and Cyber Security Minister Supa Mandiwanzira recently revealed that the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (POTRAZ) was now in the final stages of disbursing a $200 million grant that would see all telecommunication service providers embrace infrastructure sharing.

This should be a welcome development as it will see a significant increase in the quality of service delivery.

The ICT Minister was responding to questions in Parliament on poor mobile reception experienced in remote parts of the country.

Minister Mandiwanzira said it was no-longer business as usual under the new dispensation led by President Mnangagwa as POTRAZ had now accelerated most of its developmental projects, including infrastructure sharing.

In 2015, POTRAZ released its first draft on how telecoms service providers will be sharing resources.

A regulatory framework from POTRAZ is key in the development of a viable infrastructure sharing model as it ensures service providers cooperate with each other while at the same time guaranteeing maximum benefits for the consumer.

POTRAZ says infrastructure sharing could cut costs by 15 to 30 percent and reduce individual companies’ capital outlay by 60 percent which would result in a win-win situation for all stakeholders.

Consumers and Government have for long expressed concern over high costs of telecommunication services resulting from duplication of investment in infrastructure.

Therefore, it is expected that once implemented, infrastructure sharing would bring down the cost of telecoms services and promote investment into the sector.

Infrastructure sharing will eliminate unnecessary duplication of telecommunication infrastructure which increases costs on the side of the service provider.

These costs are then transferred on to the consumer, making Zimbabwe one of the most expensive countries to make a call or get internet access.

If major telecoms companies in Zimbabwe — mobile network providers Econet Wireless, Telecel and Stateowned mobile operator NetOne — and TelOne, were to share infrastructure like cell towers, this would maximise the use of existing and future telecommunication infrastructure.

The end product would be better service delivery and lower costs for the consumer as maintaining and upgrading of infrastructure would be a shared responsibility.

The positives of infrastructure sharing are not only limited to monetary benefits as the development would ensure minimal negative public health; safety and environmental impacts caused by the proliferation of telecommunication infrastructure installations.

Installations such as cell phone towers use backup generators and some emit toxins which are harmful to the environment and the people who reside around them, therefore, the fewer the better.

It will similarly make it easier and cost effective to maintain environmental standards that are ecofriendly if the sites are fewer and costs are shared by the service providers.

As the country witnesses the growth of current settlements and emergence of new ones, infrastructure sharing can only promote an orderly and effective town and country planning in terms of telecommunication service provision.

It will put an end to the sporadic unorganised erecting of telecoms towers which might make it difficult for town planners to allocate land for other developmental programmes and institutions.

It is this writer’s view that if POTRAZ and the Ministry of ICT and Cyber Security expedite the infrastructure sharing programme, the country’s economy should feel the positive effects as communication is key to national development for both locals and foreign investors.