{"id":150703,"date":"2019-11-15T06:00:32","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T11:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=150703"},"modified":"2019-11-14T20:21:07","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T01:21:07","slug":"caribbean-roaming-charges-eliminated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2019\/11\/caribbean-roaming-charges-eliminated\/","title":{"rendered":"Caribbean roaming charges: when will they truly be eliminated?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ministers for ICT across the Caribbean region have indicated their intention to lobby telecoms carriers in the region about removing roaming charges. We discuss the issue, and whether this critical initiative can be achieved.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Occasionally, and if you have been paying attention over the past several years, you may have seen reports on policymakers across the Caribbean region calling for the removal of roaming charges in the region. Specifically, it means that for mobile\/cellular devices registered on a network in one Caribbean country, they should not be paying roaming charges when they are used in another Caribbean country.<\/p>\n

Over the past several months, and as efforts to move towards the Caribbean Single ICT Space continue to unfold, calls for the removal of the mobile\/cellular charges have become more frequent. Most recently, Ministers with responsibility for ICT have agreed to collectively approach the carriers in the region about eliminating roaming charges throughout the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) (Source:\u00a0 CARICOM<\/a> Today).<\/p>\n

Typically, roaming charges would apply for all services you access outside of your local coverage area, and would include both incoming and outgoing voice calls, SMS (text messages), MMS (picture messages), and mobile\/cellular data. As a result, those charges can add up pretty quickly, to the point where many of us know at least one person who had a unpleasant surprise from their local service provider!<\/p>\n

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What currently is the situation in the Caribbean<\/h3>\n

In Caribbean countries where regional carriers Digicel and Flow have a presence, some adjustments have been made with respect to whether roaming charges. For example, if you are a Flow (or Digicel) customer in one country, and visit another Caribbean country in which Flow (or Digicel) operates, one might find that incoming calls and texts from your home country are free. However, many may argue that whatever the arrangements are, they are not consistently applied, and users may not understand key aspects of roaming charges framework, such as which services attract, and do not attract roaming fees, and the circumstances under which they apply.<\/p>\n

To that end, and as Jennifer Britton, Deputy Programme Manager, ICT for Development (ICT4D) at the CARICOM Secretariat, indicated when we had her on the ICT Pulse Podcast in August 2018 to discuss the Single ICT Space<\/a>, one of the then imminent priorities was to approach the carriers about removing roaming charges across the region. However, in our follow-up discussion, which was released this past September<\/a>, she admitted that whilst there had been progress, the process to engage the relevant parties and stakeholders has been slow.<\/p>\n

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Will the elimination of roaming charges also suffer a \u2018crisis of will?’<\/h3>\n

In light of last week\u2019s meeting of Caribbean Ministers for ICT, and the assertions made \u2013 which suggests there will be an active effort on their part to engage the carriers on removing the roaming charges \u2013 can we be hopeful that those charges will soon become a thing of the past? I am not so sure\u2026<\/p>\n

The reason for my reticence is the current states of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) and of the Single ICT Space.<\/p>\n

At the time of publishing, CSME is almost 30 years in the making, with the development strategy being tabled in 1990, and the CARICOM Single Market being implemented in 2006. However, to the man on the street, it would appear that we are nowhere close to realising CSME. Further, it should be noted that the Single ICT Space is supposed to be the technology-based foundation upon which to advance realisation of CSME. However, and based on our earlier conversations with Jennifer Britton, the region is way behind on many of the timelines and initiatives that are need to be completed towards establishing a Single ICT Space.<\/p>\n

It was thus a compelling observation made by Bar\u00adba\u00addi\u00adan Prime Min\u00adis\u00adter, Mia Mot\u00adt\u00adley, that \u201cCARICOM leaders are gripped by a \u2018crisis of will\u2019<\/em>\u201d, which also seemed to capture her own frustration on the slow pace of regional integration (Source:\u00a0 Barbados Today<\/a>). Over the years \u2013 decades \u2013 there have been lots of meetings, and decisions, on CSME and on the Single ICT Space. but the follow-through by the individual countries, and region as a whole, has been debilitating slow.<\/p>\n

So can we expect anything different with respect to the elimination of roaming charges across the region? Will that initiative also be subject to a crisis of wills?<\/p>\n

Admittedly, negotiating with the Caribbean mobile\/cellular carriers for the elimination of roaming charges in the region ought to be nowhere as complex as implementing CSME, or even the Single ICT Space. In fact, the elimination of roaming charges is considered \u2018low hanging fruit\u2019 by Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, Secretary General and Chief Executive Officer of CARICOM, and as such, that quick win \u201cshould be realised as soon as practically possible<\/em>\u201d (Source:\u00a0 CARICOM<\/a> Today).<\/p>\n

However, as mentioned above, the lack of follow-through by Caribbean countries has been one of the challenges that has plagued CARICOM, and has stymied the progress, and the speed of progress, it could have made on a number of issues. For example, although all of the Member Countries might agree on an issue, or to adopt a particular course of action, at the CARICOM level, when the Ministers or Prime Ministers return home, the actions that should be taken, in order for a regional and harmonised posture to be realised, do not occur. In a similar vein, and although the Ministers for ICT have agreed that roaming charges should be eliminated, what will they actually do when they return to their home countries to advance this issue?<\/p>\n

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A long fight may be ahead<\/h3>\n

In the current paradigm, telecoms carriers in the region are experiencing a number of challenges, including the following:<\/p>\n