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Mr Secretary-General,
Ladies and gentlemen
Mr Secretary-General, allow me first of all to express my sincere gratitude for your kind invitation, and to say how delighted I am to participate in this extremely important event.
1 Introduction
This forum is very important for us, since it will doubtless provide inputs that will help us make major choices in our telecommunication policies. The choices we face are not easy, in particular for Mauritania which has elected to pursue a resolute policy of opening up new information and communication technologies to the market, and concomitant withdrawal of the State.
The ever-increasing variety and complexity of technology makes it difficult to keep track of technological developments and to make the right strategic choices, since we do not have a complete grasp of what are often very specialized segments of increasingly sophisticated telecommunication technologies. Having said that, we are happily not totally sidelined.
On the contrary, our involvement and even input are increasingly tangible and beneficial for both South and North alike. Perhaps we are seeing here the first fruits of globalization. What makes the choices so difficult is the growing variety of new technologies and the burdensome economic constraints of established infrastructures, which pose dilemmas calling for great lucidity and a clear insight into macroeconomic prospects worldwide.
Our respective countries are confronted with difficult critical decisions, strategic development choices, choices which have a big economic and social impact, technological choices, philosophical choices in relation to the concept of communication and of telecommunication.
To make the right choices, we therefore have to consider all the scenarios, without exception, together with their impact, their advantages and their drawbacks. In other words, we will need to carry out meticulous expert studies taking on board all the pros and cons, as well as trends and new challenges.
I should like to say a few words about telecommunication policy with respect to telephony, before moving on to provide a brief overview of the regulatory regime in Mauritania and an idea of the country's communication policy.
I shall divide my intervention into two parts. Before addressing the institutional aspect, which is the main theme of this presentation, I think it would be useful to paint a broad picture of the current situation in terms of infrastructure and the history of economic players in Mauritania.
2 Existing infrastructure and its evolution
The existing telecommunication network is structured in a star configuration around the capital Nouakchott, where the national and international transit centre and the main satellite telecommunication centre are located. Each regional capital has an antenna carrying traffic to and from the capital via the Arabsat 2-B satellite.
Recently, a wireless local loop network has been brought into operation to serve the outlying areas of Nouakchott and expand the capacity of Mauritel's fixed network (Mauritel is the telecommunication operator). The number of main lines in the network has risen from 8 000 in 1996 to 19 000 in 2000.
The explosive growth of cellular telephony, introduced in November 2000, testifies to the existence of a high demand for telecommunication services. In less than six months of operation, GSM operators have achieved record levels in terms of numbers of subscribers (18 000 for Mattel and 15 000 for Mauritel Mobiles) and are counting on forecasts of 50 000 and 40 000 subscribers, respectively, by the end of the year. During this period, fixed telephony has not slumped, far from it.
However, tariffs for both fixed and mobile telephony are still fairly high in relation to average purchasing power in Mauritania.
Internet, which has been available to the public only since 1997, is registering constant exponential growth. Since a few weeks ago, all the regional capitals are now connected to the Internet with 64 Kbps access from the main node installed in Nouakchott. Access from the main node is set up via a 512 Kbps carrier (MCI-USA) and a 256 Kbps carrier (FCR-France). These capacities will be increased respectively to 2 Mbps in March 2001 and 1 Mbps, giving a total passband of 3 Mpbs. This will fall far short of what is needed to meet demand.
Our communications networks will be strengthened and access improved through several major national and international projects now under way. These include, to mention only a few:
3 Regulatory framework and telecommunication policy on telephony and its evolution
For a long time, operation of telecommunication services came under the responsibility of the central administration.
Several years back, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania undertook major reforms (1988, 1990) aimed at strengthening economic growth through a policy of gradual liberalization of the national economy.
Within this framework, it adopted in 1998 a policy declaration for the posts and telecommunication sector, providing for development of the strategic telecommunication sector through privatization.
More recently, in July 1999, we have enacted a new modern law setting forth the legal and regulatory framework for the telecommunication sector.
The objectives are to:
Since this law was enacted, the following measures have been completed:
Under law 99/019, the establishment or operation of telecommunication networks or services are subject to legal regimes of three different types:
The incumbent operator (Mauritel) has been granted a temporary exclusive licence. This temporary exclusivity will come to an end by 30 June 2004 at the latest, on which date all telecommunication networks and services will be open to competition.
It should be noted that this exclusivity does not cover either localities not served by Mauritel or services not commercially operated by Mauritel on 22 March 1998, nor indeed services defined as being free of restriction.
Finally, the incumbent operator can only enter segments of the market open to competition through subsidiaries set up for the purpose, whose relations with the parent company are governed by the principle of separation of finance and accounts.
4 IP telephony
Since February 2000, there has been a boom in IP telephony on international routes (especially to the United States, which represents 90% of all calls). It is charged at around 50 monetary units (UM) (EUR 0.25) per minute instead of 278 UM, i.e. six times cheaper. After six months of monitoring the situation, the operator Mauritel has observed that, despite this, IP telephony has eroded its United States market only very marginally (less than 1% of its turnover for that destination); that at the moment only a marginal portion of the population uses IP telephony; and that most of its customers continue to use conventional telephony and e-mail.
There is no specific regulation for IP telephony. IP telephony is considered de facto as a value-added service under the law and is thus free from restrictions and subject to competition. Accordingly, the incumbent operator has elected to let the service develop and is even contemplating ultimately providing it itself. It has taken the view that if international telephony is under threat, the danger appears to stem from elsewhere than IP telephony.
Strategic telecommunication policy choices regarding IP networks, in particular, still have to be studied. Mauritania is therefore remaining alert to developments and is keeping an open mind on the various possible options, in order to adopt the strategically most beneficial options and the most conducive to sustainable development.
The Government of Mauritania is also striving to develop a telecommunication development strategy for rural areas within the framework of its policy of access to regulated universal services. This policy will serve in particular to identify appropriate mechanisms for evaluating requirements in terms of universal access, financing, and implementing programmes aimed at making such access a reality throughout the national territory. In this connection, the government intends shortly to set up an agency for the promotion of universal access to services and give it the institutional resources needed to undertake effective and large-scale action to meet the access targets set, pursuant to its programme to eradicate poverty.
5 Conclusions
It nonetheless remains that, in general, in order to determine our telecommunication policy strategy on telephony, and IP telephony in particular, and to articulate an appropriate strategy and a medium-term and long-term action plan, we still need to gather expert advice and duly study the various options.
The decision taken by our President of the Republic, H.E. Maawiya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, to set up a new department - the Secretariat of State to the Prime Minister for New Technologies - which he has given me the honour of leading, confirms Mauritania's commitment to pursuing the objective of promoting and developing the use of information and communication technologies, which are a priority for our government.
Our conviction is that the digital divide can be bridged if the necessary political will to tackle it from the institutional and technical standpoints is there.
This is why it is such a great pleasure for me to participate actively with you in this World Telecommunication Policy Forum, which I hope will be extremely fertile and fruitful.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention.
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