African operators losing revenues

Telecoms

African telecom operators are losing revenues totalling more than $1bn that should be paid to them by overseas operators who are failing to properly bill when international calls are placed to Africa, according to Intec Telecom Systems, a leading South Africa-based billing software provider. These losses are a major reason behind the high price of international calls in Africa. The lack of up-to-date billing systems between telecom companies is held responsible.

Charges to carriers for using the networks of others - also known as interconnect - is a challenge for many African operators says Intec. Complete interconnection between networks is crucial in a competitive environment, but difficult to achieve. The problem is twofold being both a regulatory issue - usually about the level of interconnect costs - and the practical issue of the cost to African telecom operators of installing equipment for allowing interconnect and billing for this traffic.

Copyright International Communications Jan 2008
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