First World telecommunications operators could have underpaid their African counterparts by up to a third of the annual $4 billion in fees as many African operators have no means of checking the invoicing.
This is the view of Christian Ciupek, a director at Intec Telecom Systems, who says that while interconnection between various telecommunications operators has been around since the 1920s, it is only recently that they are now able to accurately invoice each other for calls that cross the various networks.
"Since most international calls are just too expensive for people living in Africa to make, it means there is a net number of incoming calls from various parts of the world to the continent and this brings in a fair amount of hard cash," Ciupek says.
He says African telecoms operators have had little proof to ensure their invoicing of foreign telecommunications operators was accurate or even if there was actual proof that the calls crossed their lines. Should these invoicing issues be sorted out, African operators could easily receive another $1 billion annually in hard cash.
Ciupek says his views are based on a number of talks he has had with African and foreign operators.
Several telecoms operators in African countries have purchased Intec`s operational support services systems to help solve their invoicing problems. The company recently announced that operators in Mali and Nigeria have started to install the systems.
Among Intec`s other African clients are Telkom and cellphone operator MTN.
Intec was founded about five years ago by several South African expatriates and is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
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