Why making phone calls in East Africa still very expensive
Saturday August 10 2024
According to the Kenya Bureau of Statistics, in 2023, Burundi had the highest average international rate at Ksh100 ($0.77) per minute, followed by Tanzania at Ksh43.33 ($0.33), Rwanda at Ksh22 ($0.17) and Uganda at Ksh12.33 ($0.093) per minute. PHOTO | FILE | NMG
Making a call to China or America from Kenya is cheaper than calling within the East African Community (EAC), in spite of efforts to eliminate roaming charges and make phone calls cheaper through the One Network Area (ONA).
Calling within the EAC is so expensive that one would spend less per minute when placing a call to India from Kenya than to Tanzania or Burundi.
Burundi was the latest entrant in the ONA, joining Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and South Sudan.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia, the newest members of the bloc, are yet to join the ONA, which was supposed to be part of the efforts to ease the flow of trade by easing the cost of telecommunication, but data from the Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) show that the objective is far from met.
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