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VoIP in Ghana: Black, White or Just Grey

Posted on 03. Oct, 2009 by Nana Kwabena Owusu in Real Tech, Unwired

I have been waiting patiently for the Skype app for my BlackBerry so I can talk to my friends outside since I have not opted for the IDD package with my postpaid subscription.

This got me thinking about the VoIP market in Ghana and whether it had changed from several years back when the words VoIP and No always went together in government policy. I haven’t really followed legislation and official policy on VoIP but I do remember the issues surrounding VoIP. Lets start from where it began.

VoIP was an unintended negative (according to government but I root for VoIP) consequence in liberalisation of the telecoms industry. When the first ISP (NCS, operator of Internet Ghana) was formed somewhere 1994,  only Ghana Telecom and Westel were allowed access to international gateways but their services were rubbish and NCS negotiated a deal for their own access. Long story short, others ISPs were formed, negotiated deals from GT and the NCA and gained international gateway access. Then around 1995, moving voice over data networks became common worldwide and that ‘internet thing’ could be used to make cheaper international calls. All hell broke loose.

ISPs wanted VoIP legalised, the government refused citing that ISPs would use VoIP to ‘steal’ international termination revenue from Ghana Telecom which was then a government cashcow. Terminatiing international ‘voice’ calls over the PSTN earned GT (and the government) foreign currency.

‘Illegal’ or not in 2000 GT had more outgoing international calls on its networks than those originating out of Ghana. Someone else (Hint: ISPs saw $$$ and flouted NCA rules) was terminating international calls and according to an article on id4online by Gordon Feller, revenue from international calls for GT dropped from US $42 million in 1998 to US $14.4 million in 2002. As expected GT went to the NCA and demanded ISPs be made to cease and desist the ‘illegal practices’.

The NCA was not equipped or backed adequately by law and the games begun. The NCA pulled a ruling out of their asses by making internal, non-commercial use of VoIP (mainly by big firms ) ‘legal’ but commercial use of VoIP especially for international call termination ‘illegal’ although the were no real laws backing the assertion.

I thought protecting the ailing monopolistic institution GT was didn’t make sense and it still doesn’t. What I want to know now is with GT now privatised can those protections be justified.

Fast-forward to October 2009 in the ‘Era of Hope’ and a privatised GT and VoIP should be legal technically and literally right?

Popular online VoIP services

Well, Yes and No. Confused by the answer? Well the only issue I can with certainty conclude is that discussing the state of VoIP in Ghana is confusing. Here are the Yes and No situations applicable to VOIP in Ghana from what I can deduce.

Yes

• Corporate Institutions and Organisations for internal telephony
• Wholesale VoIP to decrease international telecommunications costs for licensed operators ( MTN, Tigo, Vodafone,…..)

No

• Retail VoIP for individuals to make international calls
• Commercial use by entities licensed as ISPs but not telecom operators

It seems there is no black or white when it comes to VoIP, just patches of grey which in 2003 were estimated to generate $15 – 25 million annually for these ‘grey’ VoIP operators. I clearly need a drink and to lie down. My head is spinning and I still cannot answer the question I posed. Am I just bad at examinations (I set the question and still faild to answer,ouch!) or VoIP in Ghana is just too complicated?

This question needs a broader discussion to resolve it. It will be the ‘Topic of The Week’ on the Debate This section which will be launched next week.

If you have an answer to the question, drop some wisdom on us in the comments or on Debate This next week.

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Related posts:

1. Will undersea cables reduce internet costs?
2. BB4GH – Ghana’s new Broadband Strategy
3. Better Intellectual Property Law, Yes could become Oh No…
4. MTN confirms data outages (Update: Free Internet)

Tags: governace, internet telephony, policy, Real Tech, telecoms, Unwired, voip