The President of the Telecoms Chamber, Kwaku Sakyi-Addo, has appealed to government to reduce tariffs placed on incoming international calls since the internet provides a cheaper channel that may encourage people to use social media for calls.<\/p>\n
According to him, government\u2019s decision to charge telcos 2 million dollars as a gateway fee for international calls has made calls coming into the country very expensive, encouraging people to route international calls through the internet.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Bernard Avle<\/strong> on the Citi Breakfast Show,<\/strong> Mr.\u00a0Sakyi-Addo maintained that it will be in government\u2019s own interest to review the fee in order to direct traffic through the traditional channel for the telcos to make money and pay back taxes to government.<\/p>\n \u201cThe point that the telcos are making with regard to international tariff and pricing is that, when you compel the telcos to charge 19 cents, and you tie their hands in that manner, when others can call for free than coming through the gateway which is the licensed channel, then the playing field is not level,\u201d he lamented.<\/p>\n Explaining the effect on the operations of the telcos, Mr.\u00a0Sakyi-Addo pointed out that social media has provided cheaper means of communicating, thereby rendering the traditional channel of making calls into the country not competitive.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you have a choice between calling Ghana over the internet for next to nothing\u2026versus calling at 19 cents; \u00a0which choice would you make\u201d, he queried.<\/p>\n He explained that the country is also implicitly losing revenue since calls that bypass the gateway cannot be accounted .<\/p>\n \u201cThis is why you must not insist on charging so much in calling Ghana. Because you are losing traffic, because people have a choice, they don\u2019t have to call through your gateway,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He stated that even though the telcos pay 2 million dollars for the license, they are burdened with renewing it at US$200,000 every year despite making losses.<\/p>\n