[IP] GHANA TELECOM SHUTS OFF OUTGOING ISP LINES

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Esther Dyson <edyson@edventure.com>
Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 17:18:34 -0500
To: farber@cis.upenn.edu
Subject: Fwd: RE: GHANA TELECOM SHUTS OFF OUTGOING ISP LINES

sorry, delayed by human in transmission!

Esther


>Subject: RE: GHANA TELECOM SHUTS OFF OUTGOING ISP LINES
>From: James Page <jamesp@PervasiveEdge.com>
>To: William Wallis <angele.wallis@btopenworld.com>,
>    richard dowden
>         <richarddowden@blueyonder.co.uk>,
>    Esther Dyson <edyson@edventure.com>, John
>         West <salaahuddeen@hotmail.com>,
>    Jpaczkowski@knightridder.com, barlow@eff.org
>Cc: eric osiakwan <eosiakwan@hotmail.com>
>X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.0.3 (1.0.3-6)
>Date: 18 Feb 2003 22:10:12 +0000
>X-OriginalArrivalTime: 18 Feb 2003 22:15:06.0227 (UTC)
>FILETIME=[31077430:01C2D79B]
>
>
>If any of you are interested in this story I can get you allot more
>info...... The main issue is that Voice Over IP on dial up lines in
>Ghana is nearly imposable due to the bad quality of the lines.
>
>My own belief is that people are emailing and Instant Messaging instead
>of phoning. When a call to the states costs 80 cents a minute - what
>would you do.
>
>James
>
>
>This from http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/current1.html
>
>
>DESPERATE GHANA TELECOM SHUTS OFF OUTGOING ISP LINES, BLAMES VOIP BUT...
>
>Ten days ago Ghana Telecom put all the country's ISPs on one-way
>circuits so that they could only receive incoming calls. In a move
>uncannily reminiscent of Kenya Telkom's ISP shutdown before Christmas,
>Ghana Telecom is seeking to blame the loss of its international call
>revenue on ISPs doing VOIP. Eric Osiakwan and Russell Southwood seek to
>untangle the truth in this second high-profile, African clash over VOIP.
>
>One of the first signs that something was wrong came from a participant
>in a local mail-list who wrote:"Is Ghana Telecom cutting off
>ISPs??????????? Dial up to your ISP and u get beep beep beep. If it was
>one ISP it could be the usual lack of QOS (Quality of Service). But if
>it's all of them. IS GHANA TELECOM CUTTING OFF THE ISPs?."
>
>Before that Ghana Telecom had leaked to the Ghanaian press, the scale of
>its losses on international revenue. As we reported in last week's
>issue, the company has gone from earning US$42 million a year on its
>international telephone traffic to losing US$14 million over the last
>four years. In 1998, the International Telephone Traffic Revenue yielded
>US$42 million. The following year, it dropped by $8.14 million to $33.98
>million followed by a further drop in 2000 of $7.63 million to $26.4
>million in 2001. This further reduced by $7.06 million to $14.14 million
>last year.
>
>In a move that looked as if it had been planned with Ghana Telecom,
>Ghana's independent regulator, the National Communication Authority
>(NCA) announced that it was commissioning a technical team to among
>other things investigate how some ISPs caused the loss of more than
>US$30 million to Ghana Telecom. The acting Director General of the NCA,
>Major (rtd) J.R.K. Tandoh says there is evidence to show an increasing
>decline in revenue from international calls.
>
>The Chair of the Ghanaian ISP Association (GISPA), IDN's Francis Quartey
>(jailed previously for allegedly operating VOIP calls) issued a
>statement refuting the charge that GT's losses were the responsbility of
>GISPA's members.
>
>The statement opens by saying that since the operations of IDN and
>others were closed for 9 months and GT's revenues did not increase in
>the period, it can hardly be held responsible. It then makes the point
>that:"GT has not established clearly how this revenue is being lost. GT
>should establish the means by which it is losing (revenue)".
>
>It then goes on to list the reasons for the likely decline in its
>revenues:
>
>- consumers choosing e-mail over phone;
>
>- competition from Westel, the second national operator, whose
>international revenues have gone up.
>
>- the massive increase in non GT mobile subscribers whose operators have
>the capability to switch or terminate traffic directly into their own
>network.
>
>- The number of phone lines being used by ISP's cumulatively (IDN has
>200) is not in excess of 2000 lines. At the same time active ISP
>subscribers number somewhere between 15,000-20,000. So even if the ISPs
>were using the lines to terminate traffic, the impact would not be as
>purported by Ghana Telecom. (Our guesstimate would be that the grey
>market locally accounts for between 10-15% of traffic.)
>
>- A number of foreign satellite providers such Thuraya and others are in
>operation. Their activities cannot be discounted as contributor to GT's
>revenue decline.
>
>- The overall drop in the cost of international traffic. GT's accounting
>rate at the beginning of the period cited was approximately US$1 and is
>now currently 9 cents; a 90% drop in the value of traffic to GT.
>
>- And finally, its most serious allegation:"Ghana telecom has provided
>huge number of phone lines to companies whose businesses are no way
>related to telecom or dependent on telecom services. Indeed, some of
>these company's posses more phone lines than the providers ( us ).
>Management of GT has conveniently turned blind eye to the activities of
>aforementioned businesses".
>
>Indeed when the issue of losses was covered in the local press a year
>ago there were allegations that GT staff members were colluding with
>outsiders to take revenues of this kind.
>
>In its recommendations to Government, GISPA makes the point that losses
>at GT mean lower contributions to the Universal Access Fund. However if
>Government were to legalise VOIP, the it could tax the operators and get
>back this revenue and provide an opportunity for Ghana to be the telecom
>gateway in the sub-region.
>
>On Wednesday last week GISPA met with the new ICT advisor to the
>Minister Adu Gyan in the absence of the Minister himself. Sources close
>to those who attended the meeting say that the adviser agreed with the
>GISPA representatives that GT should restore all lines to the ISPs. It
>was also clear that GT's move was a breach of Ghana's anti-competition
>laws. It was also agreed that GISPA would work with the regulator and
>government to facilitate the development of a framework for legalising
>VOIP operations. The Government agreed that it would shortly make a
>formal response to the situation.
>
>In Kenya the showdown over VOIP happened to coincide with a major change
>in the political administration. This opened the way for a consortium of
>ISPs to request a licence to handle their own international connectivity
>which is being sympathetically considered by the country's independent
>regulator.
>
>In Ghana, the situation is different. The Kufor Government was elected
>as a "reform" government but in the area of ICT has yet to make much of
>an impact. When we asked Francis Quartey about when VOIP would be
>legalised in an interview in the last issue he said:"The Director
>General of the NCA which is the regulating body of communications in the
>country as well as the Minister of Communication have both publicly
>stated their readiness to license VOIP operators. In any case, I do not
>believe VOIP is illegal in Ghana- at least not in the eyes of the rule
>of law of the land. When will VOIP be legalised in Ghana? I suppose when
>we gather the political will". Will Ghana's Minister demonstrate that he
>has the will to make this change?



Esther Dyson                    Always make new mistakes!
chairman, EDventure Holdings
writer, Release 3.0 (on Website below)
edyson@edventure.com
1 (212) 924-8800    --   fax  1 (212) 924-0240
104 Fifth Avenue (between 15th and 16th Streets; 20th floor)
New York, NY 10011 USA
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