The National Communications Authority (NCA) has opened a public consultation on plans to introduce a regulator-led framework to determine wholesale rates for national roaming services in Ghana’s mobile telecommunications market.
The consultation, which began this week, invites comments from licensees, service providers and other industry stakeholders on proposals to establish benchmark wholesale ceiling rates for roaming services, replacing the current system where operators negotiate charges through bilateral agreements.
The regulator said submissions will remain open for four weeks, with responses due by April 3. The proposed framework is intended to support remedies introduced after the authority in 2020 declared MTN Ghana as having Significant Market Power in the country’s mobile telecom market.
National roaming allows subscribers of one operator to use another network’s infrastructure in areas where their provider has not yet deployed coverage. The measure was introduced to help smaller operators expand service reach and improve competition.
While roaming arrangements began in 2022 through commercial agreements between operators, the NCA said concerns have emerged about variations in wholesale roaming charges and their potential impact on retail competition.
Under the consultation document, the regulator proposes reference wholesale ceiling rates including 0.0053 cedis per minute for voice calls, 0.00003 cedis per SMS, 0.0032 cedis per megabyte of data usage and 0.00003 cedis per USSD session.
The authority said the proposed benchmarks were derived from an analytical review of prevailing retail tariffs of the market-dominant operator, existing wholesale roaming rates in bilateral agreements and an assessment of the relationship between retail and wholesale prices to prevent margin squeeze.
Stakeholders are being asked to provide feedback on both the proposed pricing levels and the methodology used to determine them.The NCA said input from the consultation may lead to revisions before final regulatory guidelines are issued.
The regulator oversees Ghana’s communications sector under the Electronic Communications Act, 2008 (Act 775) and said the proposed framework aims to promote fair competition, efficient use of telecom infrastructure and improved service availability for consumers.
