"A warning signal has surely been sent to the Zambian and other governments that monopolizing the telecom market as [is] the case with Zamtel will cost them dearly in future," said Amos Kalunga, a telecom analyst from Computer Society of Zambia.

The new Zambian government in January this year repossessed Zamtel from Lap Green Networks of Libya, claiming that the company was fraudulently sold by the previous regime.

The Tribunal concluded that Telkom had used its upstream monopoly in the facilities market to the advantage of its subsidiary. Telkom's conduct was found to have caused harm to both competitors and consumers, and to have impeded competition and innovation.

"The temptations to use single, government-owned communications infrastructure service provider to control the sector has negative consequences for the competitive ICT sector," said Marian Shinn, shadow minister of communications in the opposition Democratic Alliance.

Telkom's competitors including Value Added Network Services Association and 20 ISPs joined forces and lodged a complaint with the Competition Commission over Telkom's anticompetitive behavior and abuse of its dominance in the telecom market in 2004. The Competition Commission then referred the matter to the Competition Tribunal. But Telkom challenged the referral in the High Court. After five years of litigation, the Supreme Court of Appeal found Telkom guilty of the offense in 2009 and referred the matter back to the tribunal.