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THE DISHONESTY OF THE
INTERCONNECT CLEARING HOUSE
Government is in the process of appointing
an Interconnect Clearing House (ICH)
operator to connect calls from one network
to the other on behalf of the
telecommunications service providers. This
is nothing but connivance between government
and its cronies posing as some Interconnect
Clearing House company to make undeserved
money from subscribers and users of
telecommunications services.
What are the issues?
The Electronic Communications Act, 2008 (Act
775) requires every telecommunications
service provider to interconnect with every
other telecommunications service provider.
This is to ensure that subscribers of one
network can communicate easily and
seamlessly with subscribers of other
networks.
In Ghana, all telecommunications service
providers have invested in the necessary
infrastructure and complied with their
interconnectivity obligations. Which is why
we easily call from one network to another
as easily as we call subscribers within the
same network. Interconnectivity between
different networks in Ghana is excellent.
The National Telecommunications Authority,
the industry regulator, has therefore not
had reason to sanction any service provide
for failure to interconnect.
Then out of the blue, government announces
that it intends to appoint an ICH operator
to connect calls from each network to the
other at a price to be quoted by the
operator. Most disturbingly, government says
it would make it mandatory for each
telecommunications service provider to
subscribe to the commercial interconnect
services of the ICH operator.
The Wireless Applications Services Providers
and the Internet Service Providers are
wholly Ghanaian-owned operators in the
telecommunications industry. They have said
earnestly that they have already invested in
interconnect arrangements and don't need any
ICH. At a meeting with the Parliamentary
Select Committee on Communications on 13th
December 2014, they were clear that if they
were compelled to subscribe to the
commercial services of this ICH, many of
them could go out of business.
As for the bigger multinational
telecommunications companies, their only
point is that if government went ahead and
imposed this unnecessary ICH, they would
have no choice but to pass the consequential
cost on to subscribers and users of their
services.
Official deceitfulness!
The first sign that government has wrong
motives in introducing this ICH is the
unreasonable rush to set it up:
i. On 26th November 2014, government
published literature about the ICH on the
internet claiming it was the beginning of
public education and consultation in which
they were looking to receive comments and
inputs from all Ghanaians. Within ten (10)
working days, government claimed it had
finished doing the media and public
education and had received millions of
comments from the general public.
ii. Government further claims that within
five (5) working days beginning from 19th
November 2014, it reviewed and incorporated
into its work the millions of comments.
iii. On 26th November 2014, government
invited applications for license to operate
the said ICH. Deadline for applications was
within just eleven (11) working days.
iv. Government is now set to announce the
chosen ICH operator by Friday, the 7th
February 2015.
Now, why this unhealthy haste? Government
should show us what form the public
education took and in which media the
publicity was done. Why the rush to set up
the ICH as though there was some urgent need
for it? Why the strange urgency? This is
obviously a naive attempt to quietly sneak
the ICH into the telecommunications
industry.
But perhaps the strangest of all government
conduct is the attempt to justify the ICH by
presenting it as an answer to sim box fraud.
Not only is this deceitful, it is also
laughable. Sim box fraud is the practice of
routing international calls through the
internet in order to bypass the legitimate
route for international calls. This is done
criminally to avoid taxes. There is nothing
about an ICH that can check this bypassing,
and government knows this. This
justification is most deceitful and
unfortunate!
Government should back off this Interconnect
Clearing House project. It can serve no
honest purpose. The greed of people in
government who seek to pocket illegitimate
money should not be permitted to roll back
the gains of Ghana's telecommunications
industry. In the end, this greed will
translate into higher call rates and data
usage rates for ordinary Ghanaians and
Ghanaian businesses.
Kwaku Kwarteng
MP, Obuasi West Constituency
Deputy Ranking - Communications Select
Committee of Parliament
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