Govt urged to address high ICT costs

16 Nov, 2014 - 00:11 0 Views

The Sunday News

Roberta Katunga Senior Business Reporter
THE Computer Society of Zimbabwe has urged Government to be in charge of constructing the fibre highway infrastructure as a way of addressing the high costs of Information Communication Technologies.In a report measuring the information society, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) ranked Zimbabwe 157 out of 161 economies in terms of the ICT price basket and number 160 out of 161 in mobile cellular price basket.

Speaking on the sidelines of the CSZ summer school held in Victoria Falls last week, the organisation’s president Dr Gilford Hapanyengwi said sharing infrastructure by companies would reduce the costs of ICTs which have been identified in the Zim Asset blueprint being among the main drivers of the economy.

“A reasonable level of regulation is needed to address these high costs of accessing ICT services in the country and Government has to be responsible for construction of infrastructure by building the highway from public funds so that individual players can then compete with services they have,” said Dr Hapanyengwi.

He said the country’s biggest challenge was lack of co-ordination in the laying of fibre as each company was responsible for digging their own trenches and laying their fibre, making the service expensive to the public.

He said it was important for companies to share infrastructure in order to reduce costs, and once prices were reduced, consumers would consume more and revenues grow.

“There is additional danger when people keep digging trenches as there is a chance that someone will end up cutting another person’s fibre while excavating their own as these trenches are in the same area,” he said.

MBCA bank head of Information Technology Mr Alfred Musarurwa said sharing of platforms was important as ICTs were about connectivity and enabling doing business on the move.

“Mobile network operators should share infrastructure to bring down the prices and enable banks to access the public. There is a need to revisit investment drivers on technology with the three main pillars being accessibility, dependability and inter-operability,” he said.

Speaking on research and development, Dr Hapanyengwi ` said there was a need to invest in new ideas and support upcoming software developers at tertiary level.

Dr Hapanyengwi said the society had come up with a Special Interest Group that looks specifically at computer societies at learning institutions.

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