Hi Ish,
At 05:06 13-05-2015, Ish Sookun wrote:
>The above sentence could sound amusing but it
>reflects a serious situation in Mauritius which
>many people tend to ignore. Is the ICT Authority
>really independent? I sent a first email[2] to
>the Executive Director of ICTA beginning of the
>week and a second one after 48 hours regarding a
>question about Internet Filtering in Mauritius. I did not receive any answer.
I sent an email to the Information and
Communication Technologies Authority about the
internet filtering. I did not receive any answer.
A representative of the Information and
Communication Technologies Authority was proposed
to represent the government (locally). I
commented to the Permanent Secretary of the
Ministry of Technology, Communication and
Innovation that it would be better not to have
the national regulator represent the
government. In my opinion, it raises questions
about whether the Information and Communication
Technologies Authority is independent.
>What is the role of consumers in the improvement
>of Internet in Mauritius? From the article one
>could conclude that the ISPs are more concerned
>about their own profits rather than advancement
>& competitiveness of the ICT sector of
>Mauritius. Therefore should Internet consumers
>(businesses & individuals) simply accept the situation while ICTA acts blind.
As a consumer I do not wish to be at a
disadvantage when it comes to internet access and
I am against any anti-competitive practices which
are against my interest. It would be stupid to
accept a situation where I end up paying more for
internet access because the Information and
Communication Technologies Authority is blind to the situation.
>It would be interesting to hear folks from ICTA
>explaining why we cannot have 100Mbps local access at the price of Rs 949.
Yes.
In the news article which you shared, Mr D.
Sunnasy, President of the Mauritius IT Industry
Association, commented that Skype is illegal in
Mauritius as the ICT Act 2001 was written to
protect the interests of Mauritius Telecom.
There is an interview of the Executive Director
of the Information and Communication Technologies
Authority at
http://www.the-report.net/mauritius/jun2012/113-q-a-dr-m-k-oolun-executive-director-of-icta
Dr K. Oolun stated that:
"On top of that we have 8 internet service providers and we’ve got an
equal number of international long distance operators who allow
international calls to be made to or from Mauritius from or to any
part of the world."
Is there really eight internet service providers
in Mauritius? This is the list of ISP licences [1] for Mauritius:
Anglo African Telecommunications Ltd
Bharat Telecom Ltd
Cellplus Mobile Communications Ltd
City Call Ltd.
Data Communications Ltd.
Enterprise Data Services Ltd
Enterprise Information Solutions Ltd.
Emtel Ltd.
HOT LINK CO LTD.
I-Telecom Ltd
Kaldera
Les Relais Ltd.
Mahanagar Telephone (Mauritius) Ltd.
Mauritius Computing Services
Mauritius Telecom
MFDC Ltd.
Telecom Plus
W MEDIA INTERNATIONAL LTD
Hot Link Co. Ltd is an operator for international
calls [2]. City Call Ltd looks like Outremer
Telecom Maurice [3]. A quick search shows that
"Le Groupe Outremer Telecom développe des
solutions fiables, performantes et compétitives
en matière de téléphonie fixe et mobile, de
services Internet et Data, pour les particuliers
et les entreprises situés en Guadeloupe, en
Guyane, en Martinique, à la Réunion et à
Mayotte". Most of the ISPs in the above list
look like international long distance operators.
"However, when it comes to retail markets and
services where we believe the market
is competitive enough, we give flexibility to
the market to determine the prices.
If an operator intends to implement a new
tariff or pricing policy, they just have
to inform the authority and if they get no
reply from us in the next 15 days it
means that it is approved."
Is the consumer market competitive? Which ISPs
sell internet access for residential customers?
Regards,
S. Moonesamy
1.
https://www.icta.mu/telecommunications/licences.htm
2.
http://www.yello.mu/
3.
http://www.otam.mu/files/bpo_detail.php?id=24
Received on Wed May 13 2015 - 14:38:51 PST