A memorandum of understanding for the implementation of community roaming was signed this Wednesday, October 18, 2023 in Lomé, between the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Posts (ARCEP) of Togo and that of Benin.
The interest of this project lies in the fact that in the classic roaming system, when a consumer using mobile telephone services is in a roaming situation in Togo, Benin, Ghana or in other countries, he is billed very expensively. when using their home country number to make calls or send messages. Worse, he is also charged very expensively when he receives a call or message from his number in the country of origin.
From now on, with the signing of this memorandum of understanding between ARCEP of Togo and ARCEP of Benin which will come into force at the latest from January 1, 2024, the Togolese consumer who would find themselves in a roaming situation in n Any locality in Benin will be treated exactly as if he were a resident of Benin. Thus, when he makes calls or sends messages, he will be subject to the same rates that a consumer resident in Benin would pay.
Moreover, during the first thirty days of your stay in Benin, receiving calls and/or messages are completely free. Conversely, consumers in Benin will also benefit from the same advantages and billing terms for roaming services when they are traveling in Togo.
“Nothing can explain why a Togolese visiting Benin or a Beninese visiting Togo is subject to prohibitive pricing conditions in the use of electronic communications services in a roaming situation. These prohibitive prices have made it almost impossible to use services in a roaming situation, thus forcing consumers to engage in gymnastics to obtain ephemeral SIM cards in order to be able to make or receive calls at the cheapest possible rates. Today, thanks to the memorandum of understanding that we have just signed, roaming service prices will drop drastically. The Togolese subscriber roaming in Benin will be treated like an average resident subscriber and the Beninese subscriber roaming in Togo will be treated in the same way,” explained Michel Yaovi Galley, general director of ARCEP Togo.
As an illustration, he said that “Togolese visiting Benin used to pay 240 F when they received calls in Benin, today, they will now pay 0 FCFA for the first 30 days. Regarding call broadcasts in a roaming situation, the rates are now those which are applied to local or resident subscribers during the first 30 days of their stay.
Concretely, if a minute of call costs 60 CFA francs to a Beninese resident who makes a national call from the network of his country, the Togolese who is traveling to Benin who makes a call to a subscriber in Benin will be also billed at 60F”.
It therefore invites operators to take all necessary measures to begin offering these roaming services in their format compatible with ECOWAS regulations to consumers in Togo and Benin as soon as possible.
Note that the signing of this agreement is part of the regulation on roaming on mobile communications networks open to the public within the ECOWAS region adopted in December 2017.
This ECOWAS regulation, which is legally directly applicable in member states, aims to define a harmonized legal and pricing framework by removing, at least by reducing, community roaming charges in order to promote the integration of peoples. within ECOWAS.
It was supposed to come into force upon its adoption, unfortunately the regulatory authorities and operators of the 15 ECOWAS member states could not agree on an effective implementation of the regulation.
Faced with this situation, and encouraged by the Association of West African Telecommunications Regulators (ARTAO), the regulators decided to favor implementation of the regulation between member countries two by two; so that step by step, and within a fairly reasonable time frame, we can ensure effective and complete implementation of this regulation between all ECOWAS member states.
Rachel Doubidji