High stakes

A few months ago King Abdullah II of Jordan ordered representatives of the kingdom's information and communications technology (ICT) sector to prepare a strategy to ‘revive' the industry. He ordered the Information Technology Association of Jordan, the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology and the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) to prepare a strategy to help maintain the momentum that has been gained in the sector over a number of years. The utterances by the King bring into sharp focus the significance placed on the ICT sector, in Jordan and incumbent communications providers are hard at work living up to this expectation. On the part of the national regulator, it continues to seek new ways to support innovation in the sector.

MVNO manoeuvres

In June, the TRC issued a draft regulatory decision paper on the provision of mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) services in Jordan. Deadline for the submission of comments expired July 8.

Jordan thus becomes the first country in the Middle East to see its national regulator take a step towards preparing for the introduction of MVNOs in its telecoms market. The TRC first published a consultation document seeking comments on the broad principles that should govern the implementation of MVNOs in Jordan in January 2007, and the latest document describes the regulatory framework that is intended to formally govern the provision of MVNO services in the kingdom.

Initial provisions established by the regulator include: 

Mobile network operators (MNO) and MVNOs shall be free to negotiate the model that best fulfil their interests and business strategies. Consequently, more than one type of MVNO can be implemented in Jordan depending on how far an MVNO wishes to rely on the facilities of the host MNO, the adopted segmentation of the market and the proposed product sets.

The MVNO is a provider of Public Telecommunication Service. Thus, any party intending to provide MVNO services is required to apply for a licence in accordance with the current licensing and regulatory regime.

The type of licence required for the provision of MVNO services shall be The Individual License. This is due to using of Scarce Resources.

Licensees who provide MVNO services shall be eligible to interconnect and negotiate their interconnection arrangements with other licensees in accordance with their license agreements and any related regulations.

If the agreed MVNO operational arrangements between the host MNO and the MVNO implies wholly or in part using one or more of the identified interconnection services, then the host MNO shall provide such interconnection services to the MVNO in accordance with its obligations under the license agreement and interconnection instructions.