EACO meets on East African telecoms

BURUNDI

The regulators of the EAC are meeting in Burundi for talks on developing telecoms and broadcasting in the region.

The five-day congress of the East African Communications Organization (EACO) is discussing further measures to harmonise policy and regulatory frameworks in the region to promote the development of postal services, telecommunications and radio and TV broadcasting.

Burundi’s Communication and Telecommunications Minister, Concilie Nibigira, opened the conference on Monday, saying the communications sector still faced challenges. She said the five EAC members, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, had seen improvements in liberalisation of the telecoms sector and harmonising roaming policies.

However, challenges remaining to be addressed included the migration to digital broadcasting, international broadband tariffs, the independence of regulators, quality of service issues and spectrum management, she said.

The regulators will continue their talks until Friday.