Re: Africa spends US$400 million on internal traffic

[Brian Candler <B.Candler at pobox.com>]

On Thu, May 15, 2003 at 09:33:38AM +0000, ALAIN PATRICK AINA wrote:
> FYI
> 
> One minute call  from TOGO  to :
> 
> Nigeria: 300 F CFA ( 0.5$)
> 
> France: 700 F CFA (1.2$)
> 
> UK:       500 F CFA (0.8$)
> 
> Source: TOGO TELECOM's Directory 2003

That's interesting. From that, I'd say the call to Nigeria may be routed by
land.

When I lived in Belize, a call to the U.S. cost the equivalent of US$1.60
per minute, and so was a direct-dialled call to any other country in Central
America. But an *operator* connected call to neighbouring Mexico or
Guatemala was cheaper than the direct-dial call! I think they hadn't worked
out how to to build a routing plan in the switch.

The silly thing was, a call from the U.S. to Belize was less than a third of
the cost of a call from Belize to the U.S. A market for "callback" services
sprung up, which were immediately outlawed by the government. Providing or
marketing such a service was made a *criminal* offence so I heard; that is,
people were threatened with being put in prison.

But it shows that the $1.60 profiteering rate can't be blamed on the
satellite providers... it was the government-sponsored private monopoly
which was making all the money. BTL made a larger profit per head of
population that British Telecom in the UK.

Regards,

Brian.

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