EAC: New Regional Roaming Monitoring Framework for ONA Compliance

• The East African Community (EAC) is developing a new regional framework to monitor compliance with its One Network Area (ONA) initiative.
• The existing ONA framework, adopted in 2014-2015, significantly reduced wholesale and retail roaming charges, boosting cross-border communication.
• Implementation of ONA has been inconsistent, with varying operator participation and challenges like SIM-box fraud.
• The proposed legal monitoring framework aims to ensure uniform pricing and adherence across all member states.
• An Enhanced Regional Roaming Framework is also under review to extend coverage to all eight Partner States and include SMS and data roaming.

For legal professionals advising telecom operators within the region, this development signals a period of increased regulatory scrutiny.

The East African Community (EAC) is actively pursuing the establishment of a robust EAC regional roaming monitoring framework to ensure mobile network operators adhere to the principles of the One Network Area (ONA) initiative. This critical development was a central topic during an oversight meeting held in Kigali on November 3, highlighting the community's commitment to seamless and affordable cross-border communication. The ONA initiative, originally conceived to diminish the financial burden of mobile communication across member states, is a cornerstone of regional integration efforts.

Despite the existing framework, a significant gap has been identified in the consistent oversight of compliance. Francine Rutazana, a member of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) Committee on Communication, Trade and Investment, underscored this deficiency, noting that while national regulators set charges, a unified regional mechanism to verify adherence to ONA standards is absent. This necessitates the creation of a comprehensive legal monitoring framework at the EAC level, which would provide the necessary tools to scrutinize pricing structures within the ONA context. Such a framework would also encourage telecom operators to maintain open communication and regularly assess their implementation progress.

The foundational EAC Regional Roaming Framework was initially adopted by the Council of Ministers in November 2014, subsequently receiving endorsement from the Summit of Heads of State in February 2015. This framework was instrumental in setting definitive caps on both wholesale and retail roaming tariffs, with Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda leading the initial implementation efforts. The positive effects of this initiative have been tangible for consumers and operators alike.

Jimmy Mwesigye, Airtel Rwanda's head of voice and lead for roaming and international business, confirmed the substantial reduction in charges attributable to the framework. Wholesale rates, for instance, saw a dramatic decrease from 50 cents to just 4 cents for calls back to the home country. Similarly, retail charges, directly borne by customers, plummeted from $3 to a mere 10 cents. These significant cost reductions have directly stimulated increased usage, as customers who previously avoided making calls while roaming due to prohibitive expenses are now more inclined to communicate across borders.

Despite these successes, the implementation of the ONA initiative has been uneven across the East African Community, exhibiting variations in both scope and overall effectiveness. Andrew Changa, the manager of technical services at the East African Communications Organisation (EACO), pointed out that while lower roaming charges have indeed spurred greater cross-border communication—citing an example where a call from Rwanda to Uganda dropped from 10,000 Ugandan shillings to 300 shillings—full compliance remains elusive. Rwanda, for example, recorded higher ONA traffic volumes than Tanzania in 2023, despite its smaller geographical and demographic footprint, yet even there, implementation is not complete.

A key challenge highlighted by EACO is the incomplete participation of all operators within certain member states. Some countries report full ONA implementation even when not all their telecom operators have joined the initiative, potentially misrepresenting the true state of EAC One Network Area compliance. Furthermore, the issue of SIM-box fraud continues to undermine the integrity of the system. This illicit practice involves rerouting international calls through local SIM cards to bypass official network charges, with some operators deliberately disguising international traffic as local to exploit the lower ONA rates. These inconsistencies necessitate a more rigorous and unified approach to monitoring.

The ongoing review of the regional roaming regime signals the EAC's intent to strengthen its oversight capabilities through an Enhanced Regional Roaming Framework. This updated framework is designed not only to extend ONA coverage to all eight Partner States but also to broaden its scope to include SMS and data roaming services, addressing a critical need in modern mobile communication. The push for a comprehensive EAC regional roaming monitoring framework is a direct response to the identified inconsistencies and challenges.

For legal professionals advising telecom operators within the region, this development signals a period of increased regulatory scrutiny. The new framework is expected to introduce stricter reporting requirements and potentially new enforcement mechanisms, particularly concerning East African Community roaming charges and issues like SIM-box fraud. This proactive stance by the EAC, driven by bodies like EALA, underscores the importance of robust compliance strategies for all stakeholders in the cross-border mobile communication sector.

Lawyers advising telecom operators within the East African Community should anticipate the development of a new legal monitoring framework for One Network Area compliance, which may introduce stricter reporting requirements, new enforcement mechanisms, and increased regulatory scrutiny over roaming charges and issues like SIM-box fraud. This necessitates a review of current operational compliance and potential liabilities related to cross-border mobile communication.

Source: Original reporting via The New Times