EAC member States set stage to lower mobile calling rates

East African countries have commenced a process to lower roaming rates charged by mobile operators in the region. The East Africa Community (EAC) secretariat yesterday started the process of recruiting a firm that will study the regional mobile telephony market and make recommendations on measure to be taken to bring down roaming charges. Calls between east African nations are currently quite exorbitant.

The company will also draft a policy and regulatory framework on International Mobile Roaming Services (IMRS) within East Africa that will then be discussed among the EAC partner States before being adopted.

The consultant is expected to begin research across EAC member countries in November this year and have a report and draft framework ready by end of April 2015.
Lower roaming rates are expected to deepen economic integration within the region as well as harmonise ICT offerings within the EAC. The expected result would be to increase choices available to consumers as well as grow penetration of services in the region.

“The EAC has set aside funds in its 2014/2015 budget for the purpose of developing a policy and regulatory framework for international mobile roaming services and it intends to use part of the money to procure a consultancy that will undertake the assignment,” said EAC secretariat in a statement yesterday.

“The objective of the consultancy is to develop an appropriate policy framework and regulatory framework for IMRS, based on the assessment of the prevailing market and regulatory environments as well as the requirement to attain a common market for ICT services within EAC.”
“It is envisaged that the (consultancy) services will be carried out over a six month period commencing November 2014.”

For instance, calling while roaming in other EAC States is painfully high and have in the recent past been partly blamed for slowing down the economic integration alongside other traditional non tariff barriers. A Kenyan visiting other EAC countries, for instance, pays on average Sh25 for a minute of talk time and this could be significantly higher depending on their home networks and the partnerships they have with other operators in the region.

Cost of roaming

Charges for data are even higher, making staying in touch costly for people visiting for business. This is comparison to the home tariffs, where the maximum charge is Sh4 per minute.
In addition to operator margins, taxes levied on both local and roaming calls are said to be high and partly to blame for the high roaming rates in the region. Most of the countries in the region have imposed taxes on international calls. This has, as a result, led network operators to increase the cost of calls made to these nations.

The East African Communication Organisation (EACO), a regional body made up of telecom regulators in EAC, has been pushing for lower rates but is yet to make any demands on the telecommunication companies. Other than regulators, the ministers in charge of ICT from the region have held several meetings discussing the high cost of roaming within East Africa.

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