The ARTP is celebrating, this Friday, December 27, 2024, twenty-three years of existence. As a reminder, the Telecommunications Regulatory Agency was legally created on December 27, 2001.
Understanding its public utility can only be facilitated by a chronological reminder of the events which characterized its journey. Indeed, since 2001, the Government of Senegal has initiated a certain number of major institutional reforms for the benefit of a modern and efficient Senegal thanks to dynamism and synergy in the telecommunications or digital sector in general. These reforms were thus the basis of the creation of the Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ART), brought to its baptismal funds by Law No. 2001-15 of December 27, 2001, which gives it the status of a public establishment. , placed under the authority of the President of the Republic and endowed with legal personality and financial autonomy.
The Agency became ARTP (Telecommunications and Postal Regulatory Agency) following the promulgation of Law No. 2006-02 of January 4, 2006 amending the Telecommunications Code. This law extends the Agency's powers to postal regulation. The said law was repealed and replaced by law no. 2011-01 of February 24, 2011 bearing the Telecommunications Code which changes the status of the Agency to an independent administrative authority (Telecommunications and Postal Regulatory Authority, abbreviated “ARTP”).
23 years is the time of a generation born with the opening of the telecommunications sector to competition, then disrupted by the digital revolution. Like the sectors it regulates, the ARTP has a history of constant evolution; since 2001, no less than 5 texts have modified its missions, broadened its skills and adapted its modes of operation and regulation, up to the 2018 law establishing the Electronic Communications Code.
In 23 years of existence, the ARTP has had a remarkable record which has put our country among the nations which have successfully made the digital shift through technologies such as 3G, 4G and recently “5G”.
Beyond these achievements, it is worth mentioning:
-The portability of mobile numbers;
-Identification of customers;
-The renewal of the SONATEL concession with the extension of its license to 4G;
-The reception of three internet service providers;
-The reception of three virtual mobile operators;
-The introduction of local loop unbundling;
-The opening of USSD codes to VAS suppliers;
-The establishment of a Price Observatory;
The acquisition of a price control tool (Tariff tracker);
-Development of a new interconnection strategy for the period 2018-2021;
-The allocation of frequencies and an MNC code for the Regional Express Train – TER communication system;
-The supervision of promotions by decision of the ARTP;
-The rearrangement of the 2.6 GHz and 800 MHz frequency bands to provide the resources necessary for operators to operate 4G;
-The acquisition of a GMS tool for controlling postal dispatches;
-Active participation in the work for a single addressing system;
-The subscription of the State of SENEGAL to the ECOM@AFRICA initiative for the development of electronic commerce;
-Support for the digitalization of the national company “La Poste”;
-Support for the implementation of postal analytical accounting and the audit of the related system;
-The implementation of FREE ROAMING in West Africa (ARTP: regional coordinator);
The election of Senegal to the ITU Council for the period 2019-2023;
-The presidency of the PAPU Administration and Finance Commission since 2016;
-The vice-presidency of the Association of African Regulators;
-The vice-presidency of the ITU Finance Commission;
-The establishment of a strategy for improving the quality of service accompanied by a decision;
-The election to the post of Executive Secretary of the Postal Conference of West African States;
-The allocation of the 5G license to SONATEL and FREE;
-The organization of consultation days on the regulation of electronic communications;
-The organization of the first day of consultation on the postal sector.
This list, which is far from exhaustive, sufficiently shows that a message is too simplistic to reflect all of the ARTP's achievements.
In this regard and as you undoubtedly know, the activities of the year 2024 were strongly marked by the political context which marked the appointment of a new Director General at the head of the Authority.
A young Director General who took office on May 30, 2024 and who left his mark on the ecosystem in record time through his desire to raise the Authority and the ecosystem to the firmament of the evolution of regulated sectors and through ambition by the new authorities to make telecoms and posts the wagon of economic and social development in Senegal.
23 years is also the time of maturity, with a new cycle which will open for the ARTP, which must be the facilitator for thinking about the future of the ecosystem, on the recovery of the resources of the Authority to allow it to have more autonomy to easily fulfill its missions, the place of our country internationally, etc.
We can therefore bet that these present moments will help the ARTP evolve in the two decades to come, towards other orbits of challenges, for the benefit of the communities.
While waiting for this future, we will wish him good luck in continuing to shape the digital future of the Republic of Senegal.
M. Ibrahima Sow KANDJI
ARTP, December 27, 2024
