[ 2015-01-28 ]

Telcos, Omane Boamah disagree on SIM box solution
Communications Minister Edward Omane Boamah has
set a 2016 target to eliminate the incidence of
SIMbox fraud, which is estimated to cost the
country in excess of US$70million annually in
non-paid taxes.

Mr. Omane Boamah is banking government hopes on
the yet-to-be established Interconnect Clearing
House to stem the prevalence of a crime that
telcos blame for the loss of more than 40 percent
of call traffic from the US.

The minister, speaking at a news conference
following the arrest of some SIM box operators,
said ICH will become fully operational by middle
of the year and is capable of rejecting or
blocking calls emanating from improperly
registered SIM-cards, which fraudsters rely on for
their illegal deeds.

SIMbox fraud is a complex fraud system that makes
a call from overseas appear on the phone screen as
a local call. This is because the fraudsters
channel the calls from abroad through unapproved
routes by terminating them on SIMboxes fitted with
local SIM-cards here in Ghana.

By so doing, the fraudsters gets to keep the
international call-rate charged, but the telcos
whose SIM-cards are used to terminate the call in
Ghana only get paid the local call rate because
the call was channelled through a local SIM-card.

But the sector minister, after the arrest of some
eight operators, said an end to the illegal
activities is in sight. He said: “I’m very
confident that where a technology can offer a
service, as much as possible we must allow the
technology…which is why I want us to work toward
smooth implementation of the ICH. I am very
confident that by end of December 2015, when the
ICH has become fully operational, the story will
be significantly different,” he told newsmen.

The telecoms regulator, National Communications
Authority, will on February 7 award the licence
for the country’s first interconnect clearing
house, which is to provide a common independent
mechanism that accounts for billing and settlement
of interconnected traffic for all existing and
future operators in the country.

While the clearing house will take over all the
functions relating to preparation of billing
information and reconciliation reports, and the
reconciliation process itself, Mr. Omane Boamah
added that the nagging issue of SIMbox fraud will
be eliminated through the ICH by 2016.

But CEO of the Telecoms Chamber Kwaku Sakyi-Addo
is adamant that the solution to the SIMboxing lies
elsewhere rather than establishing an interconnect
clearing house.

Mr. Sakyi Addo speaking an interview with B&FT
insisted that: “From where we sit, we are yet to
be convinced that ICH is the solution to SIMboxing
and even call-billing. The problem of SIMboxing
will only be eliminated by a review in the current
pricing mechanism rather than a technology -- it
is not a technological problem”.

According to the Chamber, the 19 cents per minute
charge on international calls is only serving as
an incentive for the fraudsters who engage in the
illegal operation.

"The current regime makes it extremely expensive
to call Ghana, and so it costs 200 times more to
call Ghana from the UK than it does to call
Nigeria.

It also means that even calling Ghana from Togo or
from the Ivory Coast or from Sierra Leone or
neighboring West African States is costly...It's
expensive to call Ghana -- it's 19 cents. And from
where we sit, we don't see this as a law and order
problem; we don’t see this as a problem created
by technology -- we see this as a pricing
problem."

Source - Bus & Fin Times

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