Shura Council Rules on Power Struggle between Telecom Ministry and TRA
The Shura Council, Lebanon”s highest legal authority, has settled a lingering dispute between the Telecommunications Ministry and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), which was set up to overlook and regulate the communications sector.
Although the dispute erupted over a TRA decision 1/2009, it reflected the power struggle that has been brewing behind the scenes since the launch of the TRA two years ago and the appointment of Dr. Kamal Shehade at its helm.
The law 431 of 2002 under which the TRA was formed stipulated its role as an independent regulator of the Telecom sector and manager of the spectrum and all aspects related to the liberalization of the telecom industry. Ministry officials resisted passing on the necessary powers to the TRA that allows it to perform its duties and even refused in many instances to implement its decisions on the grounds that it infringed on the ministry”s powers.
The Telecom Ministry applied to the Shura Council last May to annul the TRA”s numbering system decision, which related to the regulation of the numbers allocated to the mobile operators and allow both operators to expand to 1 million new numbers each. The code starting with "71" was given to MTC Touch while Alfa got the code "72".
At the same time, the ministry ordered Alfa not to comply with the TRA decision and asked them to start using the 71 code.
The Shura Council has now ruled that law 431 has gone into effect and that TRA mandate is in full force. It instructed Alfa to comply with the TRA decision and change the allocated 71 code numbers it has issued without any cost to the subscribers.