MINISTRY OF WORKS, TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATION • Within 9 months of the establishment of the authority, the minimum requirements for handling of type approval issues should be met. • Within 12 months basic procedures for processing of telecommunications licence applications should be at hand. • Full regulatory capacity, covering all aspects of regulation, will probably take 3-5 years to develop out once the above requirements are met the liberalisation process can commence. • The above time frame could be shortened considerably if Government decides to acquire international expertise while indigenous human resources are developed. 8.4 BTC BECOMES A COMMON CARRIER IN COMPETITION WITH OTHER OPERATORS AND BTC'S NON-COMPETITIVE OPERATIONS ARE REGULATED IN A PERFORMANCE CONTRACT. Justification. The expertise and experience accumulated in BTC should be safeguarded for smooth transition of the industry. Implications. Recognising the fact that BTC because of its local expertise and well established organisation is likely to be the dominant operator for at least the immediate future, and considering the need to continue developing the national telecommunications network, it is important to clearly formulate the role and functions of BTC in these respects. The existing telecommunications infrastructure has been developed by and is presently operated by BTC. In a free and open telecommunication market anyone who wants to make use of that infrastructure should be able to do so. This raises the questions of who should maintain and operate the infrastructure and with whom should agreements for use of the network be worked out. Although, operation of the national network is an area which in principle will be open for competition, maintenance, operation and interconnection to the network requires knowledge and information about systems and equipment which only BTC possesses at present. It thus seems natural initially to let BTC manage the national network and negotiate interconnection agreements 24 TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY FOR BOTSWANA