The National Communications Authority (NCA) is confident Afriwave will be able to effectively build and operate a common platform for steering and monitoring mobile phone traffic across all service providers.
The assurance follows a confirmation that Afriwave an indigenous company has secured the country’s first Interconnect Clearing House license at a cost of GH₵4million.
A number of stakeholders including the Ghana Internet Services Providers Association (GISPA), the Ghana Telecommunications Chamber and the Wireless Application Services Providers of Ghana (WASPAG), have petitioned parliament over the National Communications Authority’s move to implement the interconnect clearing house.
According to the Ghana Internet Services Providers Association , the Telecom Chamber as well as the Wireless Application Services Providers of Ghana the new system when implemented would be an additional cost to Telcos and Services providers which would be passed on to consumers.
But the NCA, the regulator of the telecom industry says its implementation will increase accountability between telecom operators in the country.
The Interconnect Clearing house will among other benefits also bring the cost of interconnection down according to the NCA.
By securing the license, Afriwave now has authorization from the regulator to provide a common, independent mechanism for billing and settlement of interconnect accounting traffic for all existing and future operators in the country.
Principal Manager at the National Communications Authority, Kwame Baah Acheamfour has told Citi Business News, the company will sign a commitment to enable Ghana have its ideal clearing house to increase and boost accountability in the telecom sector.
‘’Even between service providers when they transit calls, and there is a complaint that is about transparency, it is difficult for the regulator who has no copy of the transaction to adjudicate over the operation because it will be the word of mouth of an operator, hence the need for the automation of the system’’
He added that the automation of transparency and accountability can be achieved with the clearing house and in real time and on hourly basis so the number of traffic that is transferred to a particular service provider.
Once the Clearing house is in place ‘on hourly basis we can know the true state of the transactions that are going on rather than the current practice where the month has to end for people to take days to reconcile
Source: citifmonline