Burundi Joins EAC One Network Area expecting to drop roaming costs, but people prefer WhatsApp calls
The East African Community’s One Network Area has now expanded with the entry of Burundi effective from the first day of August 2024.
In a communiqué to the public, the Burundi Telecommunications Regulation and Control Agency (ACRT) announced the entry into force of new tariffs for regional roaming within the region.
That was done in accordance with the directives of Decree No. 100/202 of 2nd October, 2023 on the accession of Burundi to the EAC’s One Network Area (ONA).
Burundi now joins Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania as Partner States that have implemented the One Network Area (ONA) that effectively reduces the high cost of telecommunications in the region.
However, according to observers when it comes to cost reduction, through ONA this remains a grey area.
Essentially ONA was supposed to lower roaming costs but as other countries within the One Network have so far proved, this is usually not the case.
But again, few if any people bother to place calls across the border, with so many alternatives around.
In fact, many people in the region, prefer to make data-based calls via platforms like WhatsApp which also offers video calling on the cheap; skype and sometimes also ‘Viber!’
“These unique tariffs, competitive on a regional scale, will significantly reduce the costs of cross-border communications within the EAC,” said ACRT in its communiqué.
The Burundi Telecommunications Regulation and Control Agency further directed mobile network operators to clearly communicate the applicable tariffs for regional direct and roaming framework communications and apply the detailed billing to verify the communications made and the amounts invoiced, adding that this would ensure a transparent, reliable and satisfactory user experience.
The entry of Burundi into the ONA means that six out of the eight EAC Partner States have now embarked into the arrangement that promises cheaper calls and mobile data roaming charges across the region. The newest countries in the bloc – the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Federal Republic of Somalia are yet to join the ONA.
The EAC Deputy Secretary General in charge of Infrastructure, Productive, Social and Political Sectors, Andrea Aguer Ariik, hailed Burundi for its decision to join the network adding that the move would ease the doing of business in East Africa.
He said it will also aid the free movement of persons, workers, services and capital as enshrined in the EAC Common Market Protocol.
“The entry of Burundi will reduce the high cost of mobile roaming charges in the region and strengthen the integration process because East Africans can now communicate more easily without fear of high billing charges on mobile calls whether at home or in another Partner State,” said the DSG.
“The ONA also promotes easier communication among the business community that has to span the entire region while transacting merchandise or services. We look forward to a time when all the eight Partner States will be fully on the network. It will be a big boost on our journey to an integrated East Africa,” added Ariik.
The framework for harmonized EAC roaming was developed and approved by the 30th Meeting of the Council of Ministers in 2014 and endorsed by the EAC Heads of State in February 2015.
The framework-imposed price caps on roaming charges and called for the removal of surcharges on cross-border telecommunications traffic originating and terminating within the East African Community.
The 16th Ordinary Summit of the EAC Heads of State directed the Council to expedite the implementation of the Framework for Harmonized EAC Roaming Charges, including the removal of surcharges for international telecommunications traffic originating and terminating within the EAC by 15th July 2015.