Zambia has the highest cost of international voice licenses (international gateway permits), recording 12 million U.S. dollars compared with other countries across Africa, Zambia Daily Mail Tuesday quoted an expert as saying.

The expert, who declined to be named, said here Monday the cost of international voice licenses across Africa are as low as 100,000 dollars.

The expert said that mobile service providers, MTN and Celtel, have been made to invest millions of dollars in infrastructure with the belief that international traffic market will be opened up in Zambia. He contributed the current status of going through Zambia at high costs to the slow growth of its economy.

An open international gateway will allow the two private mobile operators to interconnect directly with their sister operations in other African countries for costs as low as 0.25 cents and 0.30 cents, while the monopoly over the gateway enables Zamtel, Zambia's telecommunication corporation, to impose anti competitive restrictions, said the expert.

Out of Africa's 34 least developed countries, more than 50 percent have liberalized their international gateway and the service providers offer cheaper international call charges and other competitive rates, added the expert.

Source: Xinhua