Zambia's license fee for international gateway too high: experts

Zambia's license fee of 12 million U. S. dollars for international voice communication is too high for would-be investors, Times of Zambia quoted the consultative firm PATMAT as reporting on Friday.

The high fee gives a monopoly to Zamtel, Zambia's state-run communications company of the country, the independent consultants of the PATMAT was quoted as saying. The consultants are engaged into giving advices on fair competition and the liberalization of the international gateway (IGW).

They recommended that the fees should be reviewed to make them more competitive as the current amount is too high for some investors to enter the market.

The PATMAT consultants advised that the Zambian IGW should have a license fee of 100,000 dollars for the first year and 50,000 for the subsequent years during the transitional period, the newspaper reported.

They also recommended that licenses should be awarded to all qualified applicants after four years following the transitional period designed to protect both the end users and operators and shield the market from potentially damaging aggressive competition.

Source: Xinhua