The East African Community (EAC) is seeking a regional framework to monitor roaming charges and ensure mobile operators comply with the One Network Area (ONA) initiative. This was raised during an oversight meeting on ONA implementation in Kigali on November 3. The One Network Area initiative was introduced by the EAC to reduce the cost of cross-border mobile communication and promote regional integration. The EAC Regional Roaming Framework was adopted by the Council of Ministers in November 2014 and endorsed by the Summit of Heads of State in February 2015. It established caps on wholesale and retail roaming tariffs, with Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda among the first countries to implement the initiative. ALSO READ: One Network Area: Potential for Africa’s transformation However, implementation has varied across the region, with differences in the scope and effectiveness of the initiative. “The regulators from partner states are putting in place the charges according to the grounds and operators they have. But there is no regional framework to monitor their compliance with ONA,” said Francine Rutazana, a member of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) Committee on Communication, Trade and Investment. “What the meeting requires us is to put in place a legal monitoring framework at the level of EAC, which will help now to see how pricing is set in the framework of ONA.” She added that operators should be able to communicate with one another and regularly review their implementation of the initiative. Roaming charges fall Jimmy Mwesigye, Airtel Rwanda's head of voice and lead for roaming and international business, said the framework had reduced wholesale and retail charges. “We used to charge each other up to 50 cents for calling back home. That moved to only 4 cents,” he said. He added that retail charges, which are paid by customers, had also fallen from $3 to 10 cents. He noted that the reduction had encouraged customers who previously avoided making calls while roaming because of the high costs. ALSO READ: Burundi becomes sixth country to join EAC’s One Network Area, enjoy reduced communication costs Increased regional traffic Andrew Changa, manager of technical services at the East African Communications Organisation (EACO), said lower roaming charges had encouraged more people to communicate across borders. He cited the example of a Ugandan national living in Rwanda, saying the cost of calling home had fallen significantly. “Before, people could be charged around 10,000 Ugandan shillings to make a call, but now they are charged 300 shillings instead,” he said. Changa also added that Rwanda recorded higher ONA traffic volumes than Tanzania in 2023, despite its smaller population and land area. However, he said implementation remained incomplete, with some operators yet to participate in the initiative. He added that some countries reported implementing ONA even when not all their operators had joined. “Maybe they have six, seven operators and about four are on board. But they have not exactly reported that there is one missing.” He also cited SIM-box fraud, in which international calls are illegally rerouted through local SIM cards to avoid official network charges, as a challenge, explaining that some operators disguise international calls as local traffic to exploit the lower charges under ONA. ALSO READ: Five issues business community wants EAC leaders to address The EAC is reviewing the regional roaming regime through an Enhanced Regional Roaming Framework, which seeks to extend coverage to all eight Partner States and include SMS and data roaming services alongside voice calls. The enhanced framework also introduces measures to strengthen monitoring, enforcement, consumer protection and the prevention of fraud. The framework was technically validated in May 2026 and endorsed by the 20th Sectoral Council on Transport, Communications and Meteorology in July 2026 for submission to the Council of Ministers for consideration. Six EAC countries have joined the ONA initiative: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Burundi. Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan were among the first to implement it, while Tanzania and Burundi joined later. However, the two countries are yet to fully implement the framework. DR Congo and Somalia have not yet joined.
