The Luddite attitude of telecommunications companies in Ghana, which want the industry regulator, the National Communications Authority (NCA), to regulate Over-The-Top (OTT) apps and services - such as the free messaging and internet-based voice calls, provided by Facebook, Google, Skype, WhatsApp and Viber - as a backdoor means to enable them charge customers for their usage, is not surprising in the slightest.
What the NCA ought to point out to the Telcos, is that no one can stop the march of progress - moreso, when in this particular instance, the selfsame Telcos asking to be allowed to charge for OTT apps and services, are now eating into our national economy's banking and insurance sectors' markets, with their mobile money transfer services and insurance products: both made possible by the smartphone and mobile wireless technological revolutions. How ironical.
How would they have felt, when they first started offering mobile money services in Ghana, if the banking industry's regulator, the Bank of Ghana, had ruled that Telcos could not offer their customers mobile money services because only financial services sector entities can offer such services in Ghana?
Incidentally, yet another soon-to-be-realised benefit for the Telcos, will be the ability to use blockchain technology to enable their customers to receive remittances from abroad, directly to their smartphones, as mobile money, in what will be a fraud-free and hard-to-hack service. The Telcos should google "Abra" for an example of the bonanza that awaits them soon - as a result of the march of progress in technological advancement.
They had better wake up from their deep greed-induced slumber and think of innovative ways that will enable them hold on to their customers - for the technology now exists to enable billions across the globe to use their smartphones to make and receive limitless, crystal-clear satellite phone calls that never "drop," and limitless always-on internet access, regardless of where in the world they are positioned.
The Russian startup, Yaliney, is proposing to charge a fee of U.S.$10 per month, for just such a service.
They will have a constellation of 135 satellites, on a circular orbit at 600 kilometres altitude, which will cover the whole earth, including the oceans. That will mean countrywide access for their customers in Ghana, for example - be it in far-flung rural areas or in parts of towns and cities currently lumbered with poor coverage by the perfidious Telcos in Ghana.
Google has also invested in Tesla Motors' Elon Musk's SpaceEx for exactly the same reason.
And Yahclick, a cost-effective satellite broadband service provider, set up by the Abu Dhabi government-owned satellite company, Yahsat, aims to target markets in Africa, such as Rwanda and DR Congo, too.
Perchance, will the Telcos turn to the NCA, to try and frustrate that new technological development too - instead of leveraging what will in any case pose a latent threat to their business models, when they are eventually rolled out, one wonders? Hmm, Ghana - eyeasem o. Asem kesie ebeba debi ankasa.
The NCA should simply ignore that Luddite request from the Telcos that they should be allowed to charge customers for the use of OTT services such as WhatsApp, Viber and Skype. Talk about a greed-filled industry burying its collective head in hot sand. It just does not make sense.
The question is: To be able to make free WhatsApp, Skype and Viber voice calls, does one not need to have internet access, to begin with - which one has to pay through the nose for? So what exactly are the Telcos in Ghana complaining about? Do they expect to eat their collective cake, and still continue to have it? Surely, not?
The Telcos have taken their customers in Ghana for granted for far too long. They should be thinking of more creative ways to enable their customers enjoy world-class services from players in the industry - instead of dreaming up new shortsighted rip-off schemes to cheat mobile phone users in Ghana, who pay the earth for poor-quality voice calls and super-expensive internet data bundles: but have to up with their dreadful services. Enough is enough. Haaba.
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