Friday, 29 March

Liberian Telecom Authority (LTA) pays benchmarking visit to NCA

Business
The delegation from the Liberian Telecommunications Authority at the NCA

The  National  Communications  Authority  (NCA)  on  Wednesday , 15 September  2021,  hosted  a  10-member  delegation  from  the  Liberia  Telecommunications Authority  (LTA) at the  NCA  Tower in Accra. 

The  three-day  visit,  led  by  the Acting  Chairperson of the  LTA, Edwina Zackpah, marks the start of a long-term beneficial relationship  between both  institutions. 

The  NCA  will  serve  as  a  benchmark  for  Liberia  in  policy  development  and  give guidance on the legal framework  of  operations in the telecommunications  sector.

Welcoming  the  delegation  on  behalf  of  the  Director-General  of  NCA,  Mr  Joe  Anokye;  Director  for Regulatory  Administration  Division,  Mr  Kofi  Datsa  highlighted  some  remarkable  achievements  of the  Authority  within  the  past  three years. 

He  noted  that  before  the  adaptation  of  new  trends, the  Authority  depended  on  operators'  reports  and  complaints  from  consumers  to  determine service  performance. 

Furthermore,  the  Authority  was  unable  to  independently  verify  monthly reports  from  Mobile  Network  Operators  (MNOs)  due  to  the  inability  to  have real-time  monitoring of  MNOs' performance.

Again,  he  highlighted  the  Authority’s  implementation  of  new  methods  to  improve  Quality  of Service  and  Compliance,  with  the  goal  of  addressing  the  challenges  that  affect  the  monitoring regime. 

These  interventions  include  improved  field  drive  test  systems,  Network  Monitoring Systems  (NMS), Billing Verification  Systems  (BVS),  and,  most  significantly,  Quality  of  Service  (QoS) standards to reflect technological advancements.

In  her  opening  remarks,  Edwina  Zackpah,  the  Acting  Chairperson  of  the  LTA,  expressed her  appreciation  on  behalf  of  the  delegation,  stating  that  the  tour  will  aid  in  the  sharing  of  ideas  in areas  of  engineering  and  regulatory. 

She  also  stated  the  delegations'  desire  to  explore  some  of  the Regulations  the  NCA  has  employed  in  areas  such  as  Quality  of  Service,  Numbering,  Type  Approval, and  the  SIM  Card  registration exercise  which  is scheduled  to commence in  October,  2021.

Senator  Numene  T.H.  Bartekwa,  a  member  of  the  Liberian  delegation,  took  his  turn  to  commend the  NCA  on  the  establishment  of  the  NCA-CERT. 

He  indicated  that  it  is  a  proactive  approach  to creating  a  secured  telecoms  environment. 

He  acknowledged  that  this  partnership  will  go  a  long way to assist the LTA  with cybercrime policy  operations.

As part of  their  visit,  the delegation  will tour  some of the  NCA's  regulatory  infrastructure including  the  Communications Monitoring  Centre  (CMC),  NCA-CERT  and  the Type Approval Conformance  Laboratories.

 

Source: classfmonline.com