TRASA, ITU and CTO Universal Access and Rural Connectivity Regional Workshop
for Southern and Eastern Africa
Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania - 8^TH – 12^TH July 2002

The Telecommunications Regulators Association of Southern Africa (TRASA) in collaboration with International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) and ITU Centre of Excellence (CoE) – English Speaking Africa organized a workshop on Universal Access Models.

The workshop was part of the initiative by TRASA for facilitating the implementation of the SADC legislation of Telecommunications Policies and Model Telecommunications Bill. The workshop was aimed at producing regional Universal Access Model, which could be adopted by individual countries within the region to suit their local conditions. The workshop also identified future training assistance for the region under the Centre of Excellence project.

The draft  Universal Access Model presented was developed by CTO and ITU. The Model includes three sections:

• guidelines on universal service funds,

• reverse auctions for granting minimum subsidies and,

• multipurpose community telecentres.

The Seminar was conducted in English.