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The Government of Tanzania has established the draft regulations under the Electronic and Postal Communications Act (EPOCA) meant to address cyber threats.
In his speech that was read by his Permanent Secretary Dr Florense Turuka last week in Dar es Salaam, the Minister for Communications, Science and Technology Professor Makame Mbarawa said that the law outlines their responsibilities in a number of areas, including technical standards, interconnections and access, co-location and infrastructure sharing.
Introduction of these regulations has been necessitated not only by the electronic and postal communications Act of 201, but the dynamic developments in the postal and communications sector.
Mbawara said that his government, the regulator, service providers and consumers complete the cycle that was essential for the development of the sector. He said in this cycle of effective communications, the government provided policy guidelines, the regulator managed the regulatory process and operators provided essential services to consumers.
"We all have duties and obligations to one another within the cycle and to the public. These duties and obligations are reflected in EPOCA and regulations," he noted.
According to Mbawara other challenges that have been created by the successes in communications which the regulations seek to address among others are: complaints of unclear terms and conditions of promotions, lotteries and competitions conducted on mobile networks.
Others have been over unsolicited promotional messages, including advertisements for new services and products from mobile services providers and some of these are sent at awkward times.
Following all that, the minister has therefore said that "We are all duty bound to clear our customers' doubts. TCRA should go further by conducting intensive campaigns to make the public aware of the rights of consumers," he urged.
Prof. Mbawara further said that these draft regulations are to guide the sector as it grew. The next few years will see Tanzania implementing programs adopted at the international, regional and sub regional levels. They include the migration from analogue to digital broadcasting by December 2012, the New national Addressing and Postcodes System and Programmes being implemented as part of digital strategies within the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC).
John Nkoma the Director General of the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) told stakeholders on the Electronic and Postal Communications act (EPOCA) that Parliament passed EPOCA on 29th January 2010, which was assented by the President on 14th March 2010, and operationalised by the Minister of Communications, Science and Technology on 18th June 2010.
The new legislation will deal with new developments in the sector, such as SIM card registration, establishment of the Central Equipment Identification Register (CEIR), Computer Emergence Response Team (CERT), Digital Broadcasting, Postcodes, oversight of the Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD), which will further be amplified in Regulations.
TCRA shall continue to cooperate with stakeholders and the general public to ensure that the Tanzania people get efficient communications infrastructure, services and applications, for social and economic development of our country.
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