Mozambique: Prominent businessman, and champion of electric vehicles, dies - AIM report
Vodacom renews licence for further 20 years – AIM report
7:08 CAT | 26 Jul 2018
Photo: Notícias
The mobile phone operator Vodacom on Tuesday received a new telecommunications licence valid for twenty years from the Mozambique National Communications Institute (INCM), the country’s telecommunications regulatory body.
Vodacom will pay 40 million US dollars to the Mozambican state for its licence.
Speaking at an event to mark the licence renewal, the chairperson of the board of INCM, Ema Chicoco, said that Vodacom’s licence allows it to provide various telecommunications services as long as it adheres to the applicable regulations. She explained that until recently companies would need separate licences to cover 2G, 3G, data transmission, internet, radio, and television. However, due to the convergence of technologies the regulator is now awarding a unified licence.
Chicoco stressed, “INCM has strongly supported the expansion of the broadband and the mobile phone network”. She added that INCM has also backed multimedia community centres and “digital squares” through the Universal Access Service Fund (UASF). This receives one per cent of the net operating income from all licensed and registered entities providing public telecommunications services.
Chicoco noted “the unquestionable contribution of Vodacom throughout this process. With the unified licence, Vodacom will increase its technical capacity and strengthen its presence in our provinces, districts, localities, and administrative posts”.
Lucas Chechine, Vodacom’s administrator, said: “the receipt of this unified telecommunications licence is an asset on which we will base the development of communications in Mozambique along with the provision of services of the highest quality to meet the requirements of our customers”.
According to Chechine, Vodacom’s aim is for its network coverage to reach more of the country’s population. Currently, the company has around five million customers using its mobile phone and internet services.
The general director of INCM, Americo Muchanga, noted that the new licence results from the law approved in 2016 to respond to the convergence of telecommunications services. He added that the new licence gives greater flexibility to the operators who can introduce new technologies without having to return to INCM for further licences.
Vodacom’s renewed licence comes into effect on 24 August, replacing the present licence under which the company has been operating under for more than fifteen years.
Mozambique has three mobile phone operators, M-Cel, Vodacom, and Movitel
Source: AIM
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