Alari Alare
15 December 2004
Nairobi — International calls are set to drop by 90 per cent once mobile telephone operators begin running their own Gateways.
Safaricom General Manager, Michael Joseph, yesterday said once the Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) issues them with the international gateway operator's licence, costs would drastically fall.
"When we get the (gateway) licence, we'll be able to terminate all our calls without going through the incumbent (Telkom Kenya Limited)," Joseph said at a Nairobi hotel during the First African Forum on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
Safaricom is one of the operators gazetted in August by CCK for Internet Backbone and Gateway Operator's licences. CCK is yet to issue out the licences. Telkom Kenya Limited enjoys exclusivity on Internet Backbone and International Gateway through Jambonet.
"With the gateway, 90 percent of costs on international calls will come down. You will be able to call Europe or North America for about Sh10 per minute," said Joseph.
He also said that once they get the licence, they would install a VoIP network to allow many Kenyans to make international calls over the Internet.
With both international gateway and VoIP, international traffic will also grow by about 90 percent and the company would enjoy the economies of scale.
This will mean reduction in operational costs.
He said at the moment, only 20 per cent of international calls succeed on first attempts due to inefficiencies.
"Telkom Kenya shifts the blame to mobile operators and vice versa; this discourage callers," said Joseph.
Yesterday, market analysts said that calls carried over the Internet bypass the financial structure built up around the circuit-switched networks and the international accounting rate systems.
"This is the system that provides for settlement between the originating and terminating carriers to pay for completing calls on each other's network. The balance between incoming and out going therefore determines the net settlement rate. The advantage is that routing calls over the Internet is outside this regime," said the analyst.
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