Charges for making or receiving calls in other countries in East Africa will be cut by more than 60%.

 

Kenya's communications minister revealed mobile phone users would pay reduced tariffs¹ for calling a different network in a neighbouring country.

 

Those roaming will not be charged for receiving calls.

 

"We have reduced the cost of calling within the region," said the minister, Fred Matiangi.

 

Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda are three of the five countries that make up the East African Community (EAC), a common economic bloc², that aims to reduce barriers to trade and this move underlines the benefits of regional integration³.

 

It is thought fellow EAC members Burundi and Tanzania will follow suit, to force telecom operators to cut the cost customers pay for making and receiving calls while they are in another country.

 

 

Nebert Rugadya, an economic commentator⁴ in Kampala, told the BBC that charges for calls away from Uganda had been expensive.

 

"To call from Uganda to Kenya has been costing about 2,000 shillings, that's about $!, but when you scrub the roaming charges it will cost about 260 shillings and that is about 10 cents. It greatly reduces the cost of communications in the region and therefore the cost of trade and doing business," he said.

 

Mr Rugadya claimed the first move was made by telecom companies in Rwanda.

 

"MTN Rwanda and Airtel Rwanda did it simply because Rwanda and Kenya scrubbed the taxes on incoming calls, which means companies in Rwanda are finding it cheaper to make a call to Kenya," he told the BBC's Business Update programme.

 

The telecom sector⁵ in East Africa has led the rest of the world in using mobile phones to make payments, with the Mpesa system run by Safaricom proving so popular that the company is developing it for use in Europe, notably⁶ Romania.

 

Kenya's Safaricom, one of the region's biggest mobile phone operators, played down the impact of cheaper roaming charges, insisting revenues from roaming were not a key part of its business.

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