Created in Bamako on October 28, 2003, FRATEL’s main mission is to establish and strengthen collaboration and exchanges between its members. The Moroccan Az-El-Arabe Hassibi led the organization for the year 2023.
Louis-Marc Sakala, the director general of the Postal and Electronic Communications Regulatory Agency of Congo (ARPCE), is the new president of the French-speaking Telecommunications Regulation Network (FRATEL). He was appointed head of the organization on Friday October 27, at the end of its 21st annual meeting which was held in Rabat, Morocco on October 25 and 26 under the theme: “How to strengthen the objective user satisfaction in regulation? “.
In his new role, Mr. Sakala will be assisted by two vice-presidents, with whom he forms the Coordination Committee. The organization is responsible for making proposals to all members of FRATEL for the implementation of the 2024 action plan which several points, in particular exchanges of best practices, the identification of new issues of regulation of digital markets induced by transformations in the sector.
Justifying this interest of FRATEL for a revisited regulation at a time of evolution of the telecoms markets, Louis-Marc Sakala maintained that ” our field of activity being subject to frantic changes, it is more than imperative that we harmonize our policies and our expertise in order to better understand these changes and the challenges inherent in achieving our objectives, particularly those of our action plan .
Two meetings are already scheduled for the first half of the year, in accordance with FRATEL’s focus for 2024. The first will have the theme “what business models and strategies for telecom operators in the future?” » just awaits the identification of the host country and a fixed date. The second meeting under the theme “data economy and digital services: what are the technical and economic regulation issues? » is planned in Togo. A fixed date is also to be decided.
More dynamic telecoms regulation is one of the essential conditions for a successful digital transformation in Africa, particularly in the French-speaking region. New technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Metaverse, 5G, etc., are emerging and shaking up the landscape. New needs in terms of connectivity, security, quality of service, pricing, competition management, consumer protection, etc., must be identified and regulated as early as possible to avoid abuse.
For the success of his mandate and the success of FRATEL’s 2024 action plan, Louis-Marc Sakala called for everyone’s collaboration. “ We therefore need everyone to achieve results from our action plan which improve, in terms of telecommunications and electronic communications, the daily lives of the populations of our common space,” he said.
Recall that the new president, Louis-Marc Sakala succeeds Az-El-Arabe Hassibi, director general of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ANRT) of Morocco who was brought to the head of the organization in 2022. Coordination Committee was then composed of Luc Tapella, director of the Luxembourg Regulatory Authority (ILR) and Mr. Sakala.