The National Communications Authority (NCA) has set a new call and SMS termination rate among the country’s telecoms operators for the period 2012 – 2014. The new rate, which takes effect from January 1, 2012, replaced the old one set in 2008 and expired December 31, 2011. Until the new one was set, telecom operators paid each other 5Gp per minute of every call that originate from one network and terminate on another network. So for instance, if a Tigo customer makes a call to MTN, and Tigo charges 8.4Gp per minute, Tigo will pay MTN 5Gp from that money, because the call terminated on MTN, and vice versa. But a statement on the NCA’s website said for the rest of 2012 the call termination rate will remain 5Gp then reduce to 4.50Gp in 2013 and finally reduce to 4Gp in 2014 before the NCA will decide on another possible review. “The interconnect termination rate for SMS on all mobile networks in Ghana shall (also) be at the cost of 0.7 Gp for the year 2012, and glide to 0.60 Gp and 0.50 Gp for the years 2013 and 2014 respectively,” the statement said The NCA said incoming international transit interconnect termination rate for all calls shall be maintained at its current rate in accordance with the Electronic Communications (Amendment) Act, 2009 (Act 786). The current interconnect rate for international incoming calls is 8.25 cents, which means if, for instance, an international call comes through the Vodafone gateway and terminates on an Airtel number, Vodafone will charge the fixed 19 cents per minute and pay Airtel 8.25 cents. The statement said new rate regime was due to consideration of the market conditions and submissions made by the operators. “Furthermore, after further consideration of industry dynamics, the NCA hereby implements asymmetric interconnect termination rate for voice calls as a catalyst to further deepen competition in the market,” the statement said. It noted that the asymmetric interconnect termination rate regime applies to new entrants, like Glo, and operators with less than 5% of subscriber market share, like Expresso. In effect, even though the rest of the operators would pay 5Gp for domestic call terminating on another’s network in 2012, Glo and Expresso would pay 4Gp because of the reasons stated by the NCA. But “notwithstanding the condition, should either of the two operators attain a subscriber market share of 5% before the expiry of the 24-month stipulated period, that operator shall cease to enjoy this consideration,” the NCA said.