Namibia has not appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.

It is reported that the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN), the executive authority for the supervision and administration of services in the telecommunications sector, is independent from the government in the decision-making process.

Namibia has not joined any free trade agreement committing to open transfers of cross-border data flows.

Section 46.2 of the Communications Act requires that the Minister in charge approves the acquisition of control or ownership of a company in the telecommunications sector.

Section 211 of the Industrial Property Act of 2012 requires that applicants for parents whose ordinary residence or principal place of business is outside Namibia should be represented by an agent. The agent is either a legal practitioner resident and practising in Namibia in accordance with the Legal Practitioners Act, 1995 (Act No. 15 of 1995) or a person registered by the Registrar as an agent.

Namibia is a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

The Copyright Act follows a fair dealing regime for copyright with a fairly wide range of exceptions, which enable the lawful use of copyrighted work by others. Arts. 15-24 list the exceptions, which include research or private study by, or the personal or private use by, the person using the work; criticism or review of the work or of another work; reporting on a current event in a newspaper, magazine or similar periodical; or by means of broadcasting or in a cinematograph film; among others.

Namibia has signed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty in December 1996, but has not ratified it.

Namibia has signed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty in December 1996, but has not ratified it.

Art. 5 of the Electronic Transactions Act requires accreditation of security services and products, including those which are meant to encrypt or decrypt data. This accreditation may involve the technical analysis of the services. The specific requirements for such technical analysis are not listed. However, this can be interpreted to mean the submission of source codes and algorithms may be necessary.

Namibia does not have a comprehensive framework in place that provides effective protection of trade secrets, but there are limited measures addressing some issues related to them. Section 195(c) of the Industrial Property Act of 2012 restricts the disclosure, acquisition or use in a manner contrary to honest commercial practices of secret information without the written consent of the person lawfully in control of that information.

It is reported that there is an obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in Namibia to deliver telecom services to end users. It is practised in both the mobile sector and fixed sectors based on commercial agreements.

Section 46 of the Communications Act restricts shareholding in the telecommunications sector to a maximum of 49% for foreigners or companies that are not owned and controlled by Namibian citizens.

There are three telecommunications providers in Namibia: Telecom Namibia Group, Mobile Telecommunications Namibia (MTC), and Paratus Telecommunications. Two of these, Telecom Namibia Group and Mobile Telecommunications Limited, are the incumbent telecommunications providers and are also fully state-owned. Furthermore, it is reported that among the mobile network operators, the mobile infrastructure is 97% owned by the state-owned Telecom Namibia and MTC. In addition, MTC's market share is close to 100% for both voice and SMS traffic.

It is reported that Namibia does not mandate accounting separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market. However, functional separation is required by law.