The lack of legalisation of voice over IP (VOIP) services in Africa was bemoaned on the eve of Africa Day - 25 May.
Balancing Act CEO Russell Southwood says, while Botswana and Cape Verde recently moved in the direction of legalising the technology, they are still part of a small group of African countries to have done so.
"There are only 10 African countries, including Botswana and Cape Verde, that have legalised VOIP," he says.
VOIP is an Internet Protocol (IP) technology that allows voice information to be sent in digital form, rather than using the traditional circuit-committed protocols of the public switched telephone network. A major advantage of VOIP and Internet telephony is that it avoids the tolls charged by ordinary telephone services.
VOIP has been touted as the way forward for developing countries, in particular, as it helps to drive the uptake of telecommunications by allowing for far cheaper communications.
"Lower international calling prices mean that international businesses find it cheaper to operate in Africa and, therefore, increase their investment," explains Southwood.
According to Southwood, the lack of a legal framework for VOIP to operate shows incumbent telecommunications players in Africa, be they fixed or mobile, want to retain their stronghold on the market.
"The problem is also that, even if it is legal, how do you get a licence for it?" He explains that few telecommunications regulators are truly liberalising their environments in this way.
"You need a mindset change to move away from the incumbent players to VOIP in order for it to take off."
Looking to Africa
Southwood says SA has a relatively large number of value-added network service providers, but is still stifled, as far as reducing the cost of telecommunications, by a low number of international gateways and high interconnect fees.
"It is not possible to make it cheaper at the moment, certainly not as rapidly as we would want it to happen."
He points to other African countries where he believes VOIP is being properly introduced: "If, as in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, you have opened the range of people who have access to the international gateway function and international VOIP service providers can interconnect with other operators to offer cheap calling, then you can really say VOIP is legal.
"It will be the only way to drive down the cost of international calling and increase its volumes. If you're not doing this, you're missing the point."
With regards to whether VOIP is automatically illegal if it is not specifically legalised, Southwood says: "In Anglophone countries, law relies more on custom and practice, and it has tended to be argued that gateway licences make VOIP illegal for all but those operating under the licence."
In addition, arguing that licences are technology-neutral and allow operators to carry voice, irrespective of how, is only true in a narrow sense, says Southwood.
"One to three international gateway licence-holders are unlikely to be incentivised by a cost-cutting technology like VOIP to lower their international calling prices. This only happens - as in East Africa - when you start licensing additional alternative VOIP service providers who both introduce the technology and lower international calling prices."
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