MINISTRY OF WORKS, TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATION 8.9 PRICES AND TARIFFS ARE REGULATED IN CERTAIN MARKET SEGMENTS DURING THE INITIAL PHASE OF THE RESTRUCTURING PROCESS. | Justification. In a liberalised market with open and free competition, competitive forces will determine prices and tariffs and there will be no need for any regulation. This scenario, however, is not likely to occur in all segments of the market and especially not at the onset of the restructuring process. Implications. Price regulation and control is a cumbersome task and will be a heavy burden for the Regulatory Authority if all telecommunications services are to be regulated. It will defeat the purpose of competition and it will be difficult to determine the level of tariffs which will achieve the goal of universal service at affordable prices and at the same time allow for rapid expansion of networks and services. Since it is impossible at this point in time to predict to what extent full competition is going to take place in various market segments, interim measures along the following lines should be introduced. i) No price control on; - terminal equipment - storage and forwarding of facsimile services - public telephor~e boxes - packet switched data services - electronic mail services - paging services ii) Price control on; - national long-distance services - cellular telephone services - local network services. Prices should be deemed fair and reasonable if they reflect recovery of the investment in the medium to long term perspective. The above measures require close monitoring of price formations in the industry and customers are likely to be the best watch-dogs of abuse or exploitation. 8.10 A MANDATORY LICENSING SYSTEM FOR ALL NETWORKS AND SERVICES IS INTRODUCED. 29 TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY FOR BOTSWANA