By Nana Appiah Acquaye, Accra, Ghana
Ghana’s licensed Interconnect Clearinghouse (ICH) operator, Afriwave Telecom has teamed up with SIGOS (formerly Meucci), experts in real time monitoring of SIMbox fraud to deal with the issue of SIMboxing in the country.
SIGOS is the worldwide leader in active testing and Fraud Detection of telecommunication networks and services. It serves over 430 network operators in 151 countries worldwide, including most top 100 network operators. SIGOS also runs a GlobalRoamer, the world’s largest roaming testing platform, which provides access to over 780 networks in 206 countries.
According to the CEO of Afriwave Telecom, Philip Sowah its robust systems have been set up to significantly arrest SIM Box Fraud once it goes into full operation.
“Currently, the test calls from all the telecom operators put together is about 120,000 a month. We are going to significantly increase this number to a minimum of 400,000 per month,” he said.
Afriwave Telecom won the bid to operate interconnect clearing house services in Ghana as the most qualified firm to deliver on the license which is to provide a common, independent mechanism for monitoring, routing, billing and settlement of local and international interconnect traffic for all existing and future telecommunications operators in the country.
The company has also engaged leading industry partners and experts to join its specialist team to deliver on its mandate.
The project will be rolled out in two phases. The first, Phase 1A and has two objectives: it will provide enhanced services to monitor and validate government revenues in accordance with Act 786 (International incoming tariff) and Act 864 (Communications Service Tax) to help government realise its revenues. The second objective which is the provision of anti-fraud management and revenue assurance systems will include the management of SIMbox Fraud.
The role out of phase 1B, which will be after 1A, will provide other value added services like EIR (Equipment Identity Register) services for the blocking of stolen handsets, a common platform for independent international wholesale carriers to deliver calls and the capability of routing of local interconnect calls.
