Africa’s Trading Blocs in Kenya to Discuss Single Mobile Area Network

Africa’s trading blocs on Thursday began a two-day meeting in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi to discuss ways of implementing a single mobile area network.

In order to discuss ways to lower the cost of telephone calls within and between the economic blocs, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) were all present at the event.

The cost of telecommunications is still quite expensive both outside and inside the regional economic communities of the continent, according to Jean-Baptiste Mutabazi, head of Infrastructure and Logistics at COMESA, who made this statement in his opening remarks.

“Our goal is that we have one area mobile network across the trading blocs so that consumers can call using local tariffs,” Mutabazi said, revealing that each regional economic community will implement a single area network which then merges to form a single African mobile area network.

According to East African Communications Organization executive secretary Ally Simba, the regional group has already made headway in deploying a single-area mobile network. Four of the EAC’s seven member states are currently connected to a regional area network.

High mobile roaming costs, according to Rosemary Mapolao Mokoena, Director of Infrastructure at the Southern African Development Community, are a barrier to international electronic communication.

Customers will gain from a single African mobile area network, according to Mokoena, because they won’t have to purchase new mobile sim cards every time they go into an African bordering country.

A single African mobile area network, according to John Tanui, senior secretary of Kenya’s State Department for Information Communication and Technology and Digital Economy, will spur regional integration by lowering the cost of voice calls across the continent.