Some Telecoms expert say the prevailing phenomenon whereby the telephone numbers of incoming foreign calls register as local numbers of certain mobile networks underscores how crucial the planned SIM card registration is to the industry.
According to them, the trend which emanates from the illegal operations of some individuals does not only adversely affect the revenue of the operators and government but also the quality of the incoming foreign calls.
This they said deals with international airtime traffic of a wholesale market which are usually directed to a certain country before reaching its targeted destination, in this case Ghana.
The phenomenon is known to have been in existence for quite some time now but appears to becoming increasingly rampant in recent times.
Telecoms Expert, Fouad Chalabi in an interview with Citi Business attributed the development to activities of fraudsters.
“This is clearly fraud because somebody has illegally installed what they call technically SIM BOOK… Sim book is like a small laptop where you put so many Sim cards into”, he said.
According to him, “this doesn’t have to be with an operator but somebody dealing with international call can writes the call booked from outside through your Sim card and it will appear as local number.”
He added that “there is a certain fee paid anytime you receive a call on your network which is called interconnection… the one receiving the call is pays around 12US cent and 10US cent for making local calls so the person is able to connect 2 extra cent from this transaction.
He says only the effective implementation of the intended SIM registration could address the issue.
He added that only an International Gateway licensing could make it legal which in this case is presently limited to data services involving internet.
“I don’t know if International gateway has been licensed in Ghana but to the best of my knowledge, it is only operator who have the International Gateway and has paid for license have the right to trade with voice”, he noted.
According to him, “this is done through a black market and it can only be prevented only after implementing the Sim registration”.
He added that “the other way the operators can stop this is to be informed by users anytime they experience this then the operator can trace the number and shut it down…but even that, Sim cards are very cheap so it can be replaced immediately”.
The National Communications Authority also says it is strategically collaborating with other stakeholders to effectively curb the phenomenon.
The Director General, Bernard Forson told Citi Business exclusively “it has been on our attention for all this while but it is not something we have to broadcast because we don’t want to cause a social scare”.
Meanwhile, the Communications Ministry has already indicated plans to establish a centre for verification of incoming foreign calls estimated to generate (in taxes), an additional 50 million dollars per annum.
This implies all international calls would be passed through a single gateway run by a company called Global Voice.
It is however expected to more than double the present cost of international calls to Ghana with part of the proceeds going towards "fees" for the management of the gateway.
