Making A Better World - Milton Louw

Namibia’s regulatory position is like stepping back ten years if you’re more used to the competitive rough and tumble in Africa’s more developed markets. The historic incumbent Telecom Namibia still has some monopoly privileges and the new incumbent, Government-owned mobile operator MTC is in danger of behaving in much the same way. Sadly the country has closed its regulator with a view to opening a new one. However, this has meant all things regulatory have gone into a holding pattern. Russell Southwood looks at the key market barriers that are holding things back. Historic incumbent Telecom Namibia has an infrastructure monopoly and although the power utility NamPower has fibre assets, it has only recently tendered them: MTC (which may build a link to South Africa), Telecom Namibia and some ISPs are all interested in the capacity. Telecom Namibia invested in what was then Africa’s only real international cable, SAT3 but didn’t invest enough to get a landing station. This is someth...

Monopolies - the good, the bad the ….. What are Monopolies? Most people discuss monopolies and blame it for high allowing certain companies to get away with higher prices or unsatisfactory service levels. The argument here is that if competition is allowed, this would automatically mean lower prices or better service. In the following text I look at the various types of monopolies, how they came to exist, and most importantly is competition always a good thing? There are various types of monopoly. Let us look at the most common types in Namibia. - Selling monopolies - a company is the only supplier of a product and the customers must accept the prices it fixes - Producing monopolies - a company controls the manufacture or source of supply - Trading monopolies - a company controls the marketing channel between the source and the customers Furthermore, most monopolies are either national (countrywide) or local in geography. There are three main ways in which a monopoly gets its power, ei...