To compensate for the financial losses induced by the drop in international telecom voice traffic caused by the massive adoption of the Over-The-Top (OTT) WhatsApp application, the government of Tanzania is currently considering various solutions, including the introduction new data rates. Information and Communication Technology Minister Faustine Ndugulile (pictured) revealed this on Wednesday (March 10) in an interview with mwananchi.co.tz.
Acknowledging that banning WhatsApp calls is not a viable option, Emmanuel Manase, the director of sector issues at the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), said a price adjustment could instead help the country to stabilize its revenues. He argued that the first step will first be to identify the phones that make and receive calls through the OTTs. Through their call data, the regulator will be able to estimate the total value of calls made and received in order to determine by how much to adjust the price of the data.
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Over the years, OTTs have been preferred by consumers of telecom services in view of the affordable costs they offer. As a result, the number of international mobile calls increased from 107.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2012 to 27.27 million in the last quarter of 2020, according to the TCRA. That is to say a decline of 81.09% in ten years.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
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