Ghana Telecom Loses 26.2USD Million

Investigations have revealed that Ghana Telecom, (GT) lost an amount of $26.2 million, equivalent of ?183.4 billion between 1999 and 2001, in its international telephone traffic operations.

The loss is due to the increasing use of Voice over Internet Protocol, VoIP, for the termination of international calls by Internet cafes and private organizations among others.

According to a senior GT official, the company’s management is getting increasingly worried about the soaring level of the losses, which he stated was becoming very alarming.

The in-payments and out-payments for 1999 stood at ?33,986,732 and $20,575,453 respectively, the Business and Financial Times reports.

A total of $26.3 million was recorded for in-payments in year 2000 as against $20.7 million for out-payments, whist year 2001 registered $9.9 million for out-payments, and $17.1 million for in-payments, all showing consistent losses.

The paper says documents available to it reveal that there is no balance traffic use between GT and its partners in Direct Interconnection Agreement. In Ghana, only GT and Westel are licensed by the National Communications Authority (NCA) to import and export voice messages.

However, the designing of the interconnections had adversely the company’s network, experts say. Though these operators obtained licenses only to operate data and browse their websites, they consequently use GT’s dial tones to convey voice, fax and related services locally and internationally.

The loss of revenue by GT through VoIP, another source hinted, is partly due to the unholy alliance between some GT staff with operators or people who are being allowed to pirate on the company’s work.

Experts in the telecommunication sector say, as ISPs become more widespread, policy-makers will have to find out whether the current regulatory framework which was developed for circuit based networks is still relevant and appropriate given the technological differences between IP based and circuit based networks.

NCA sources say the regulatory approach to IP technology varies significantly among International Telecommunications Union (ITU) member states and reflects the different interests involved.

The NCA says the current voice traffic does not favour GT, which as a result had made the company lose billions of cedis in revenue collection over the years.