This document outlines the new licensing framework introduced in Botswana in 2007. The new licensing framework moved Botswana from an authorization regime that focused on service-specific authorizations to a regime that featured only three broad categories of multi-service authorizations.
Botswana’s multi-service licensing regime features three categories of authorizations: Public Telecommunications Operator (PTO) Licences, Value-Added Network Services (VANS) Licences, and Private Network Licences.
PTO Licences authorise licensees to provide the full range of public telecommunications services, including (but not limited to) local, long distance, and international voice services and network services using any available technology.
VANS Licences authorise licensees to provide all forms of value-added telecommunications services such as Internet and data services. Under the authorization framework, VoIP falls within the scope of the VANS Licence.
Private Network Licences apply to the operation of private networks, which refers to networks that the licensee maintains for its internal own use and that does not interconnect with any public network.
Pursuant to Botswana’s plan for the liberalization of the ICT sector, new entrants were permitted to apply for all categories of authorization except for nation-wide, service-neutral authorizations.