Telecommunications Regulators’ Association of Southern Africa (TRASA)

TRASA was inaugurated in September 1997 in Tanzania. The association aims to work towards harmonizing regulations and policies, to achieve universal service and sustainable communications development in Southern Africa. TRASA is a forum of telecommunications regulators in Southern Africa. It pursues the goals of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) of regional integration and economic growth through the promotion of accelerated development of the telecommunications sector. The members of TRASA are telecommunications regulatory organisations in Southern Africa, namely: Angola, Botswana, DRC, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

 TRASA’s objectives are:

      To co-ordinate regulatory matters and to exchange ideas, views and experiences on all aspects of regulation of the telecommunications sector throughout the Southern Africa region;

      To promote the establishment and operation of efficient, adequate, and cost-effective telecommunications networks and services in the Southern Africa region which meet the diverse needs of customers while being economically sustainable;

      To facilitate a uniform level of understanding of regulatory matters and

      To maximize the utilization of scarce resources in specialist areas of telecommunications

TRASA is committed to improving and increasing the human capacity to manage the policy and regulatory activities of the telecommunications sector in the SADC region. Consequently, TRASA in collaboration with co-operating partners, USAID, CTO and ITU have been working towards a Network for Capacity Building and Knowledge Exchange in the Telecommunications Sector (NetTel@Africa). The impetus for the Network was a result of the request made by TRASA for more coordinated training in the ICT sector in the SADC region.  The network involves African and American universities, with the aim of developing training program in ICT policy and regulation.

More Information on TRASA? visit http://www.trasa.org