Key Regulatory Concerns for SATRC Members Afghanistan Scenario

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Key Regulatory Concerns for SATRC
MembersAfghanistan Scenario

• A Presentation
• for the
• Seventh South Asian Telecommunications
  Regulators' Council (SATRC) Meeting
• 13 - 15 December 2005
• Bandos Island, Maldives

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Background

• 25 years of armed conflict and the vast
  destruction
• Key infrastructures including the telecom sector
  devastated extensively
• The country one of the least developing even
  prior to war, lowest penetration in the region,
  two telephones per 1,000 people
• Emerge of peace and new challenges pace with the
  liberalized environment.

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Reforms Telecom Sector Country at the cross
roads

• (a) immediately address the needs of provision of
  telecommunications services in the country, or
• (b) to furnish the legal lane for introduction of
  the services, to delay implementing of any
  telecom project prior to establishing required
  legal and regulatory mechanism.
• Nonetheless, the first option was opted for.
  The goad to achieve was not so easy.

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High demand for the telecom services factors
inhibiting economic development of the country
due to the following

• a. millions of the population living abroad,
• b. pouring international community into the
  country, such as International Security
  Assistance Forces (ISAF) and the donor
  community,
• c. injection of hundreds of millions dollars of
  foreign aid into the country as a result of
  international support to the war-torn country
  and
• d. long history of under-investment into
  telecom infrastructure in the past.

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Liberalization of the marketOnly allowing
private investment could probably address the
issue. But the liberalization had its challenges.

• Challenges
• 1. The process more complicated and challenging
  in a post-conflict country where the judiciary
  and executive mechanisms have collapsed.
• 2 The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) responsible
  for processing the law has been tremendously busy
  with a back-log of more than 100 priority laws.
• 3 The Telecom Regulatory Body (TRB) had to
  wait a period of over two years before it could
  turn into an independent regulator could be
  established by the law.

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KEY CONCERNS FOR REGULATORS

• TRA Staffing
• The TRB, within Ministry of Communications (MoC)
  with a skeleton qualified staffing, not in ideal
  shape and performance, despite supports from
  World Bank, ITU and APT, nor efficient outputs.
  The Telecom Law (awaiting signature of the
  President to be promulgated) will grant full
  independence to the regulator to emerge as
  Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA) and recruit
  enough staff, shall be more efficient.

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2. Monopolistic Assessment versus Liberalized
Market
(a) The market liberalized based on the need and
not necessarily on conviction that the
liberalization is the best approach for the
country. (b) The process of the liberalization
of the market began prior the concept of
liberalization and private sector is advocated
and digested. (c) As a result, role of the
private sector not recognized, and view the
regulators negatively. (d) Many do not
understand the nature of the liberalized market
and the private investors, still consider the MoC
responsible for all telecom issues and fail to
comprehend nature of the telecom private sector.
(e) This creates a concern to the TRB, as is not
recognized as a entity that regulates the issues
of the operators. The TRB had to work hard to
change such environment for the better interests
of the country.
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3. Absence of Relevant Rules and Regulations

• (a) In the absence of Telecom Law, the regulatory
  body was not able to act independently, nor to
  enforce, process and adopt required rules and
  regulations as it should have. (b) A tiny potion
  of private sector abused the prevailing situation
  (legal vacuum, lack of monitoring), (c) that
  resulted in a growing mistrust of the private
  telecom service providers, though services
  provided by them were the most reliable ones
  available. (d) various criticisms the consumers
  have against the private companies and the MoC
  alike.
• To reverse this scenario, a confidence-building
  process is required. A powerful TRA and the
  Telecom Law should jointly be able to address the
  issue.

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4. Regulatory Framework versus State Laws
(a) In the face of the given shortfall, the TRB
was pushed to approach the judiciary and
executive organs, such as Ministry of Interior
(MoI) and MoJ for consultation and assistance to
enforce the applicable laws in the telecom
sector. (b) As result of that, today some organs
are involved in the regulatory territory.
Consequently (i) borders between state law and
regulation is mixed up, (ii) regulatory enforcing
had been facing challenges and obstacles. No
doubt this development is a serious concern to
the TRA, and in this direction returning to the
right path is a priority.
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5. Independent Regulatory Within the Ministry
Framework
(a) we shall have an independent regulatory body
under supervision of the MoC. (b) The mistakes
the operators committed in this direction proven
fatal. (b) Past hard experiences convinced the
MoJ not to consent to a fully independent
regulatory entity. (d) The MoJ considers that
such protection by the MoC to TRB is required
and is essential to back up the regulatory body
for the time being. Nonetheless, every
phenomenon is subject to improvement, and with
the improvement in the legal-regulatory
framework, there will be room for positive
changes.
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LONG WAY FORWARD

• It took a long time before the TRB could pass the
  first phase getting independence, and has to
  struggle hard. While the law is being
  promulgated, the regulatory body has to pass a
  long road before it meets the international
  standards, but it will.
• We are optimistic to solve the issues, as the
  country is moving towards more application of
  laws.
• TRA will look for and welcome warmly any kind of
  regulatory supports the SATRC members may kindly
  extend.

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Thank You
Contact Mohmmmad Naser Naseri Legal
Advisor Telecom Regulatory Board Ministry of
Communications of Afghanistan December
2005 m.naseri_at_trb.gov.af www.trb.gov.af