Page 96 - SAMENA Trends - January-February 2023

WHOLESALE UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Airtel Congo and MTN Congo Ink National Roaming Deal

A national roaming agreement between Congolese mobile
operators Airtel Congo and MTN Congo has been announced by
the Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Post
(L’Agence de Regulation des Postes et des Communications
Electroniques, ARPCE). In a press release regarding the matter,
ARPCE noted that the under the deal MTN Congo will open its
network to its rivals subscribers at eight sites, with locations
covered including Malele, Kissila, Kintamou, and Liouesso.
Meanwhile, Airtel Congo will give access to its infrastructure
to MTN Congo subscribers at ten localities – including Kayes,
Tchicanou, Boulankio and Ketta.

EC Adopts Proposal to Include Ukraine in EU Free Roaming Zone

The European Commission (EC) has adopted a proposal
to incorporate mobile network roaming into the EU-Ukraine
Association Agreement, bringing Ukraine one step closer to joining
the EU’s free roaming area. Currently, EU and Ukrainian telecom
operators offer affordable or free calls between the EU and Ukraine,
on a voluntary basis, benefitting more than four million people
fleeing war. The voluntary measures were recently extended by six
months and the new arrangement now also covers calls to fixed
line numbers in Ukraine as well as new types of operators. The
EC’s latest proposal on 14 February will now be considered by the
Council of the European Union. Following the Council’s agreement,
a Joint Decision will need to be taken by the EU-Ukraine Trade
Committee to grant mutual internal market treatment for roaming.
The EC highlights that bringing Ukraine into the EU free roaming
area is one of the key actions of the revised Priority Action Plan
– a roadmap for the full implementation of the EU-Ukraine Deep
and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) and Ukraine’s further
integration into the EU Single Market.

Somali Operators Enable Network Interconnection

The National Communications Authority (NCA) has announced that
Somali mobile operators have implemented an interconnection
agreement to allow end users to call each other seamlessly across
different telecoms networks. The agreement, which was signed in
December last year, was a result of a series of discussions and
consultations between the relevant parties that worked out all the
fundamental issues necessary for the signing of the deal, including
mobile termination rates (MTRs). The interconnection agreement
came into force on 10 January 2023, and the interconnection
process was expected to be completed by February 2023.
According to the NCA, ‘the agreement has been implemented
in part by Hormuud Telecom, Somtel, Amtel, SomLink, Golis
Telecommunications and Telesom’.

96 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2023