
Vice-Presidente do Conselho Nacional Governativo, do MISA-Mocambique, Fátima Mimbire em conferência de imprensa
Maputo, 16 May (AIM) – The Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom body MISA (Media Institute of Southern Africa) submitted, on Wednesday, a petition to the National Communications Institute (INCM), the regulatory body for telecommunications, calling on it to revoke the resolution which sets limits on the retail tariffs to be charged by mobile phone operators.
According to the deputy head of MISA, Fátima Mimbire, who was speaking to reporters in Maputo, the document calls on the INCM to scrap its resolution, which has increased tariffs for voice, data and SMS services.
“We don’t understand what the real reason is for the increase in fees, especially since some mobile phone operators are in favour of reducing internet tariffs. We are moving towards a world in which the internet is free and access to it is becoming a fundamental human right,’ said Mimbire.
She added that the Internet enables a series of other rights, such as access to information, freedom of expression and citizen participation in the country’s public life.
“Our petition has to do with a series of rights of Mozambicans that are being violated, including the principles of functional decision-making in public administration”, she said.
She also said that MISA intends to resort to the Ombudsman and the courts if its petition is rejected by the INCM.
The INCM initially claimed that its resolution aimed at reducing tariffs – but users soon pointed out that in reality it increased them. In confusing statements, the INCM said it was establishing a lower limit for tariffs. Operators would not be allowed to charge less than the INCM limit.
This would end promotional offers, whereby operators offer unlimited Internet access, supposedly threatening the sustainability of the telecommunications market.
“The idea of saving the industry seems fallacious to us”, said Mimbire. “Some companies in the communications sector are going bankrupt for management reasons and not because tariffs are low. There is no room for negotiation. The INCM says it’s going to take its concerns to its superiors, but the question we’re asking is who those superiors are, given that the INCM is a regulatory body”.
So far nobody has undertaken a detailed comparison between the old tariffs, and the INCM’s demands, which would prove whether or not the INCM is forcing an increase in tariffs.
There are three mobile phone companies (T-Mcel, Vodacom and Movitel) plus a range of other operators that offer Internet services. This leads to a multiplicity of telecommunications packages of varying prices, some of which may now become illegal under the INCM’s diktat.
(AIM)
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