Nairobi – The EAC secretariat will soon summon all telecom operators and sector regulators from the region to address the high costs of making calls within the region.East African Community deputy secretary general for planning infrastructure, Enos Bukuku, said the secretariat was reacting to a decision by Safaricom to raise its international call tariffs.“We are going to call the operators and governments to the discussion table to resolve this issue. We want a model that will make roaming and international calling seamless, as well as affordable in the region,” he said.Last week, the mobile service provider increased international calling and roaming charges to Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, citing a harsher taxation regime.Though he did not disclose when the meeting would take place, Bukuku said it would be held soon given that addressing the high cost of calling within the region is one of the deliverables in his 2013/14 performance contract.Bukuku was speaking on the sidelines of the regional investment forum in Nairobi on Thursday. Trade barriersAn EAC guidebook to investing in the community co-authored by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the East African Business Council (EABC) was launched during the forum.Stakeholders from the public and the private sectors also discussed the challenges facing trade in the region.“Non-tariff barriers (NTBs) such as unnecessarily prolonged clearing procedures have continued to pose a negative impact on trade, making doing business in East Africa expensive,” the East African affairs permanent secretary, Mwanamaka Mabruki, said.Given that it is cheaper for Kenyan residents to call the United Kingdom than Tanzania, the high cost of calling in East Africa has been considered one such NTB.Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda are now taxing international calls from Kenya sh13.55 ($0.16), sh10.16 ($0.12), sh7.62 ($0.09) and sh8.4 ($0.10), respectively.Due to these taxes, Safaricom subscribers now pay sh25 to make international calls to all networks in the four countries.Roaming costsPreviously, calling Uganda and Burundi cost sh18, while calls to Tanzania cost sh25.Furthermore, the cost of receiving calls while roaming has increased from sh18 to sh25 in all four countries.In a letter to the Ministry of East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism that was copied to yu Mobile, Orange and Airtel, the Safaricom chief executive officer, Bob Collymore, warned that the taxes would raise the cost of doing business in the region.
