The Calling Cards Rip-off
1st November 2009 · 2 Comments
Africans in the Diaspora are faced with a serious dilemma when it comes to calling back home to their loved ones; as the cost of calls from Europe and America to African countries is the most expensive in the world. Western telecommunications tariffs and rates to Africa are ridiculously priced to the point that you will be forgiven to think that the job they started, exploiting our resources during colonial times have not been completed. They still want more; and this time they are targeting Africans living abroad who resort to menial jobs to earn a living to support their families back home. A one minute call from London to Accra or Freetown through British Telecom will cost you about £1.50p
When you ask these companies why the calls are so expensive they tell you the prices only reflect the heavy levy placed on them by National African telecommunications carriers. But the question is; what are the levies placed on these African Telecoms agencies by the western carriers as well? And don’t forget the taxes that western countries impose on local telecoms agencies; all these determine the final cost of telephone calls to Africa. But it is interesting to note that a call from London to the U.S. can cost as little as 1p depending on the service you use.
These vast contrasts in tariffs for about the same distance in miles to the destination country only highlights the growing problems of an unequal playground within the world economic order. Because of these inevitable higher tariffs, most African’s in the Diaspora have been turning to alternatives methods of calling their loved ones back home. The use of the calling cards have sky rocketed in the past 5 years as Africans seek to get the best deals to call their country.
But it has come to light that these cards are themselves the product of the major telecoms companies who use them as a means to levy stealth service charges and connection fees after advertising that a £5.00 calling card will give you hundreds of minutes to an African destination only for you to find out later that for every call you make using these cards, there is a 30% connection fee applicable and a card that is meant to give you 100 minutes of talk time ends up only providing 15 minutes of call use. Calling home has now become a big business for western telecoms company and Africans continue to be the victims of this vicious rip-off game that continues to make the west richer and Africa poorer!!
© 2009, Ahmed M Kamara. All rights reserved. Discuss this article on the Salone Forum Salone Forum
This article is bias and ill informed.
If your assumption is right, you would have to also explain why calling international from salone is 20 times what a phone card would charge me calling from the US..
I pay $22 for internet access in the states..Why is it 3 times more in salone?
Most of the charges levied are advertised on the Phonecard for all to see and weight the gains or loss versus using say your home phone to make international calls.
The reason tariff is high in calling “SOME” countries is mostly on the receiving end..
A) Some countries refusing to invest in upgrading national connectivity to the outside world and investing in ICT to bring their country to international and efficient standards.
The lack of investing in our future and seeing a bigger picture by the African carriers is the greatest roadblock.
Salone for example is still connecting by buying expensive satellite bandwidth instead of joining the undersea cabling network that now connects most of our West African Neighbors that have seen significant reduction in connectivity cost across all ICT.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAT-3/WASC_%28cable_system%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SAFE-SAT3-WASC-route.png
Why do you think celltel, tigo etc have some of the highest tariffs in Ecowas for voice and data, simple because they are belabored by the same rules and charges governing connecting IN. They have to pay SierraTel XXX amount per bandwidth. SierraTel in turn has to use satellite to connect out because they have never invested in upgrading and joining the digital undersea cabling age. And since government does not want sierratel to be a burden, so they give them a free reign on how to determine tariff in and out of salone.. there lies the reason for most of the high charges and creative ways to make a profit.
While a call to Ghana will cost you 5c, a call to salone or Guinea will cost you 35c simple because of the high cost of connectivity.
Before Ghana joined they payed about the same as we now.
B) National governments owning telecoms company and protesting them from competition is another major factor.
The rate that SierraTel asks any ICT to terminate to salone is 5X per minute what other countries ask and they can get away with it since government granted them exclusivity in termination rights.
I can bet my last phone card that no one rips off anyone. All you have to do is read the terms of service and usage details and you will see the charges explained. Rounding, taxes, Connection fees are all industry standards that even your cell phone company uses.
http://www.callsalone.com
We connect salone.
You guys should check out http://www.SaloneNetwork.com for free SMS and deep discounted calling cards and direct dial options that include a local number for each of your long distance numbers.