The council of ministers of the Republic of Niger, after a meeting on October 19, 2018, reviewed and adopted three draft decrees for the development of the telecommunications sector.

These are notably, the decree on directions, priority, and financing of universal access to electronic communication services, a decree on the modalities of elaboration and control of the prices of electronic communication services and the decree on the terms and conditions for interconnection and access to those services.

The draft project about the directions, priorities, and financings for universal access to electronic communications services will determine the main actions to be implemented for a whole coverage of the country -villages notably- with telecom networks and the financial mechanisms necessary to achieve the intended goal.

The draft decree on the modalities for elaboration and control of the price of electronic communication services will determine the roles of the regulatory agency as far as the control of the prices of electronic communications to the public and the modalities applied to those service providers for the prices are concerned. This new regulatory text will introduce a contract of services between operators, service providers, and users. There will also be the notion of a leading operator.

Alas, the draft decree on the interconnection and access terms and conditions will bring novelties as far as the network sharing, unbundling of the local loop to promote diversity in competing offers and services are concerned as well as open the telecom market to mobile virtual network operators.