Deputy Communications Minister, Ato Sarpong, has admitted the amended Electronic Communications Act, 2008 (Act 775) which legalizes the establishment of the Interconnect Clearing House (ICH) did not mandate it to terminate international calls.

Speaking on the Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on March 22, Mr Sarpong said though the law did not mandate the ICH to handle international calls, it does not prohibit it.

He said, “what ICH does everywhere is that it offers a one-stop shop for new operators, existing operators and value added operators to have connection with one operator.”

On March 17, Parliament passed the Electronic Communications (Amendment) Act, 2008 (Act 775) which gave legal backing to the establishment of the ICH facility for telecom networks to interconnect.

It made some major changes in the Act including changing the monopoly status of the ICH making it possible for the NCA to allow multiple ICH facilities to enable competition.

The House also removed a provision which granted the ICH operator the license to enter into revenue monitoring services in the operation of its facilities.

However, there was no portion in the law that mandates ICH to route international traffic – a role currently performed by the telecommunication companies.

International calls are terminated by telcos themselves who claim they have invested heavily in securing some equipment to enable them do that, however, Mr Ato Sarpong said the ICH operator, which is Afriwave Telecom Ghana would do that as part of its byproduct function.

He said: “We have all [government and telcos] agreed and by law that we should establish an ICH for all the operators to be connected to it”, adding that this is done in the interest of telcos and Ghanaians as a whole.

According to him, by choosing to set up the ICH facility, government is doing what makes “commercial sense in a cost effective ways” for all the stakeholders of the telecommunication industry.