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A Member of Parliament (MP), an individual and a Development Data, a policy research and advocacy institution, have filed a writ at the Human Rights Division of a High Court in Accra asking the court to order government not to proceed with the implementation of the Interconnect Clearing House (ICH). 

Mr Kwaku Kwarteng, MP for Obuasi West Constituency, who doubles as Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Select Committee on Communications; Mr Elijah Adansi-Bonah; and Development Data file the writ last Thursday, March 5, 2015. 

According to them, ICH constitutes interference in the right to free communication of all telecommunications service subscribers.

The plaintiffs are asking the court for a declaration that the ICH is unlawful and unnecessary. 

They have argued that while they have contracts with the telecommunications service providers to transmit their communication, they have no such contract with any ICH operator. 

The defendants in the case are the National Communications Authority (NCA), Afriwave Telecom Ghana Limited, the company that was awarded the ICH contract and the six mobile telecommunications companies operating in the country.

The court has given the defendants eight days from the day of being served the suit to enter appearance.

The suit said on November 26, 2014, government published literature about the ICH on the internet claiming it was the beginning of public education and consultation in which they were looking to receive comments and inputs from all Ghanaians.

Within 10 working days, government claimed it had finished doing the media and public education and had received millions of comments from the general public.

Government further claims that within five working days, beginning from November 19, 2014, it reviewed and incorporated into its work the millions of comments.

The plaintiffs argue that NCA has no power to appoint a third party such as Afriwave and impose its interconnect services on all telcos, describing it as unlawful, unreasonable, irrational and contrary to law.

Plaintiffs say that by law the telecommunications service providers, in terms of their respective licences, are required to interconnect with one another.

Currently, the telecommunications companies have arrangements and infrastructure for connecting calls from one network to another. 

The telecommunications companies also have developed infrastructure for connecting calls from outside Ghana, and for providing internet services. They are actually required by the Electronic Communications Act (Act 775) of 2008 to do the above.

This is why subscribers are able to call from one network to another seamlessly and also make and receive international calls and use the internet.

Plaintiffs say that to ensure the efficiency and efficacy of the interconnectivity obligations of telcos, NCA, as the industry regulator, in terms of its enabling statute, has been given enormous statutory powers to sanction and even revoke the licenses of telecommunications service providers that fail to interconnect with all other licensed service providers.

The plaintiffs, therefore, contend that the result of the effective interconnectivity services provided by telcos are that plaintiffs herein, like the millions of other Ghanaian telecommunications service subscribers, have not experienced any difficulty communicating with subscribers of other networks for which reason NCA, as the industry regulator, has not had reason to sanction any service provider for failure to interconnect.

Plaintiffs say that if NCA finds the need to appoint Afriwave to support telecommunications service providers who have difficulty satisfying their interconnect obligations, then the subscription to those interconnect services ought to be done as an optional non-mandatory business decision of each telecommunications service provider.

The Wireless Applications Services Providers (WASPAG), wholly Ghanaian-owned operators in the telecommunications industry, have condemned the ICH, saying they want to interconnect calls and data services themselves as they have always done. 

They expressed worry that a government appointed ICH operator would mismanage interconnectivity and destroy their businesses.

The Internet Service Providers (GISPA) are also wholly Ghanaian-owned operators in the telecommunications industry, which also do not want the ICH because they say it is too risky to leave such an important part of their business in the hands of an ICH operator appointed by government. 

Multinational telecommunications companies have raised similar concerns and requested that if government would set up the ICH at all, it should not be mandatory for them to route their calls and data services through it. 

They have sought to know from government what problem government is seeking to solve.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has also condemned the government move, saying that "the ICH has the potential of crippling the telecoms industry and rolling back the gains made in the sector so far."

IMANI’s president Franklin Cudjoe has described the National Communication Authority (NCA) and the Ministry of Communication as extremely wasteful enterprises following their introduction of the Interconnect Clearing House.

According to him, the establishment of the Interconnect Clearing House was illegal since stakeholders were not consulted.

He also argued that the Interconnect Clearing House was crippling the telecommunication industry.  

In spite of all these concerns, government has proceeded to appoint the ICH operator, Afriwave Telecom Ghana Ltd, and has charged Afriwave to start operations by May 2015.