2023-12-20 23:10:02
Despite the adoption in 2017 of a “ regulation relating to roaming charges on mobile networks in the Cédéao area “, residents of the sub-region often continue to pay high prices for their calls and data when they leave their country. Unless they buy a local SIM every time they travel. But in recent months, several bilateral agreements have been signed between national regulators, in order to drastically reduce roaming costs. Togo, Benin, Ghana, Gabon and even Côte d’Ivoire have, for example, started to agree on the subject.
From our correspondent in Lomé,
In the heart of the Togolese capital, just a few meters from the border with Ghana, Idayatu sells soaps and beauty products on a small stand: “ I’m going to Lagos to buy the goods, to bring them back here ».
But every time she crosses a border, Idayatu is forced to buy a new SIM card to communicate. “II have a SIM from Nigeria, one for Ghana, one for Togo. And even one for Ivory Coast too. If you need it, it’s normal, you will pay » she laments.
Reduced roaming fees for 2024
However, ECOWAS adopted an initiative relating to data roaming in 2017. A community regulation which has been difficult to apply so far. Yoavi, who runs a currency exchange office a hundred meters from the Ghanaian border, complains regarding the high cost of roaming : « Sometimes when you return to Ghana, your SIM goes straight to “roaming”. And it’s going to be expensive for you and for whoever you’re calling. »
However, things are regarding to change. Togo recently signed bilateral agreements free roaming with Benin, Ghana and even Mali. From the start of 2024, roaming costs between these countries will be drastically reduced.
« Initially, receiving calls is free for these customers, whereas in current roaming, receiving calls is charged. Whereas there, it is free for a consecutive stay of 30 days in the visited country. And secondly, when he uses his number in the visited country, the rates have been studied so that they do not exceed the rates which are applied by the operators of the visited country », Explains Aissatou Diallo, the director of marketing and communications for the operator Togocom.
A cost for operators
With these bilateral agreements, national regulators hope to use communications as a vector of development and regional integration.
The planned price reduction is significant: at least 60% reduction on calls made from Benin to Togo for example. And it also concerns data. Hervé Coovi Guedegbe is the executive secretary of the communications regulatory authority of Benin – he notes that the ECOWAS regulations are not sufficiently implemented: “ Before these agreements, you are excluded when you go to the other side, because the data roaming service, perhaps your system provider does not have it in contract with an operator in the visited country… And when it has it, you were in rates of around 1,500 to 2,000 CFA Francs per megabyte… With these agreements, the operators conceded that the mega would not exceed 2.22 CFA Francs. »
These measures of course have a cost for telephone operators, who count on the loyalty of their customers, even abroad.
Also listenEnd of roaming: towards globalized telephony?
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