I came across this article this morning, it seems in an effort to 'maximise profit', a governemnt is willing to shut down cheaper acess to ICT`s from its people. Li'l wonder WiFi is not catching up...read the tussle...
DESPERATE GHANA TELECOM SHUTS OFF INCOMING ISP LINES, BLAMES VOIP BUT...
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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 ISP¹s 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 GT¹s
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 company¹s
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?