A telecom expert has debunked recent claims that the introduction of Interconnect Clearinghouse (ICH) in Ghana will result in the wastage of the interconnect investment operators have made on their existing networks.

Osman Issah said: "The existing switching capacities the operators have invested in will not be wasted, but used for their interconnection with the Clearinghouse."

Mr Issah has worked with Onetouch as a Program Manager supervising project managers with respect to interconnect, worked with Alcatel Lucent and Ericsson and now a private telecoms consultant with a PMP certification from the USA and a PRINCE2 certification from the UK.

He explained that purely from the principle of interconnectivity of networks and global best practice, the introduction of the ICH will not only lead to better utilization of existing infrastructure but also save operators tremendous financial resources in the building of new interconnect capacities and infrastructure.

Osman Issah

Issah noted that interconnection of telecom networks involves two major sections of the operator’s network - the transmission links (fiber optics, microwave, etc) and the switching capacity that must be maintained to ensure high answer seizure ratio (ASR) of the calls and guarantee quality service delivery to the industry.

"Commentators that do not understand the full function of the ICH and how it will benefit the operators in ensuring more efficient interconnect relationship have been using the fact that the existing transmission links between operators will no longer be necessary as new transmission links to the ICH is put in place as an excuse to claim that the existing investment the operators have made on their network will be wasted."

"This is not accurate," Issah said, adding "The cost of new transmission links that will be put in place will be borne by the ICH operator and not the Telcos. The existing transmission links can still be used by the Telcos for their on-net traffic if they so wish."

Savings for telcos

He said even with the current interconnect regime, the operators still make annual upgrades of the transmission links and since under peer-to-peer the number of links is N (N – 1), where N is the number of operators, for the six major operators in Ghana at the moment, the number of links that needs to be upgraded and maintained each year is 30. But with the introduction of the ICH, the number of links that needs to be upgraded and maintained becomes only six.

The operators therefore will be spending less than 20% of their current expenses on the upgrade and maintenance of their interconnect transmission links going forward. This savings to the operators can be applied to other services to the subscribers or added to their annual profits.

The telecom Expert said the capacities telcos currently have will be better utilized and have more value when channeled through the Clearinghouse than the current situation under the peer-to-peer interconnect scheme.

"This is because at present, while capacities dedicated to a particular operator is congested with traffic and cannot be used to pass more traffic; the capacities dedicated to another operator may be completely free of traffic and lying idle. The operators under peer-to-peer interconnect scheme therefore don’t get the full value of the interconnect capacities they have deployed on the network. Under interconnection through a Clearinghouse, all interconnect capacities from the operator is channeled to the Clearinghouse. This way every traffic carrying capacity is available to all operators and none is wasted. The operators therefore get full value for the investment in interconnect switching capacities," he said.

Issah thinks telcos had always opposed interventions from regulators or the state meant to ensure transparency in their dealings, and this is just one of those oppositions that would go away over time.

But a Vodafone official told Adom News Issah is not being honest with the facts because it is not difficult to see that connect to the ICH means "if your interconnect system is more advanced than the ICH, you have to downgrade; if your are less advanced than ICH you have to upgrade and both of those exercises will cost money."