Ruto calls for East African telecom harmonisation to cut call rates
By Faith Lagat, May 4, 2026President William Ruto has renewed calls for deeper telecom integration across East Africa, urging partner states to fully actualise the “One Network Area” (ONA) concept to lower cross-border communication costs and enhance regional connectivity.
Speaking at the Kenya-Tanzania Business Forum at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre in Dar es Salaam on May 4, 2026, Ruto emphasised the need for full harmonisation of mobile networks across the region.
“I am looking forward to having a conversation on how we can finally actualise the mobile one area network,” he said. He noted that some progress has already been made in parts of the region, where calls between certain countries are treated as local.
“As you know, phone calls today from Kenya to Uganda and Rwanda are considered local telephone calls,” he said.
However, he pointed out that gaps remain, particularly in the case of Tanzania. “There is still a problem; we still consider a phone call to Tanzania to be a foreign call. Foreign to where?” he said. He added that there is a need for regional stakeholders to work together to ensure full harmonisation.
Progress and gaps in one network area
Ruto’s remarks highlight gaps in the East African Community ONA initiative, introduced between 2014 and 2015 to enable users to pay local rates for calls, SMS, and data while roaming across member states including Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and Tanzania.
The initiative aims to treat the region as a single communications market, with incoming calls free and roaming simplified. However, implementation remains uneven more than a decade later, with variations in national regulations, pricing structures, network readiness, and tax policies continuing to drive up costs.
Differences in policy frameworks, the presence of government-controlled international gateways in some countries, and inconsistent tax regimes on telecom services have slowed tariff harmonisation. At the same time, operators’ competitive strategies, traffic flow imbalances, and misuse of permanent roaming arrangements have further complicated progress.
Regional efforts to lower tariffs
Efforts to address these challenges are ongoing. The World Bank, through the Eastern Africa Regional Digital Integration Project (EARDIP), is supporting the development of a regional roaming framework. The framework seeks to align interconnection rules, roaming charges, quality of service standards, and cross-border billing systems.
Proposals under discussion include capping data roaming charges at as low as USD 0.005 per megabyte to make services more affordable.
Elsewhere on the continent, similar initiatives are taking shape. Botswana and several Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, including Malawi, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe, have implemented tariff reductions across voice, SMS and data services.
Economic and social impact
According to sector stakeholders, full harmonisation within the EAC would lower the cost of doing business, improve communication for cross-border traders, and support investment in digital infrastructure.
Kenya’s ICT Cabinet Secretary William Kabogo has also underscored the need for inclusive digital growth, noting that improved connectivity is central to expanding access to services across the region.
For individuals and businesses operating across borders, aligning telecom systems under a unified framework is expected to ease communication, reduce operational costs, and strengthen regional integration.