Telecom Companies want the National Communications Authority (NCA) to review rates on international calls if the fight against sim box fraud is to be won.
According to the telecom operators the 19 cents per minute charge on calls into the country is only serving as an incentive for the fraudsters who engage in the illegal operation.
The fraud takes place when individuals or organizations illegally terminate a voice call which is the preserve of registered licensed network operators, usually at lower cost than the approved rates.
These are then used to channel national or international calls away from licensed international gateway operators and presented as local calls on unlicensed networks.
Speaking to Citi Business News Director of External Affairs at Vodafone Ghana, Gayheart Mensah said the trend is affecting revenue generation.
“We strongly believe that a second look needs to be taken at the tariffs that we pay for international coming traffic. Specifically we think that the 19 cents per minute for international incoming traffic ought to be looked at again and it is not just an issue of reducing the internationally income traffic but it an issue of looking at the relationship international incoming traffic, local traffic, the kinds of tariff regime, the kind of payment within that entire transactional line.
As telco’s we are of the firm opinion that the incidence of sim boxing, indeed the growing incidence on sim boxing is as a results of the cost involved in international incoming calls and something needs to be done as soon as possible.”
By: Norvan Acquah – Hayford/citifmonline.com/Ghana