The recently published report by Balancing Act provides an overall picture on the state of VoIP in Africa. The 170-page also brings some hard realities that the policy makers of these countries are bound to accept sooner or later.
From the report, one thing is clear that VoIP has brought a consumer friendly market in Africa where carriers are forced to reduce prices for international destinations.
For instance, most of the telecom service providers charged nearly one dollar per minute call to international destinations, say Europe and North America in 2005.
The pressure from grey market which has come into being due to the interference of VoIP players has forced them to bring down the prices. According to the Balancing Act, half of the telecom service providers are now charging just 25 cents for the same calls.
Commenting on the Balancing Act findings, Russell Southwood, one of the authors of the report observes,
This is good news for Africa in general and business on the continent in particular. Cheaper international phone calls help make Africa globally more competitive and more capable of attracting new jobs through things like call centres.
The policy makers of African countries are now realizing the benefits of VoIP. It seems that they will take lenient approach to embrace VoIP.
