More than 10 years after the East African Community launched efforts to make cross-border mobile communication affordable, East Africans are still facing expensive roaming charges, patchy implementation and uneven telecom regulations across the region.
This week in Dar es Salaam, telecommunications regulators, policymakers and regional experts from EAC member states gathered again to discuss a new harmonised Regional Mobile Roaming Framework the latest attempt to resolve a problem the bloc has been debating since 2013.
The renewed push raises questions about why previous regional commitments have failed to fully deliver seamless and affordable connectivity despite years of negotiations, pilot projects and policy declarations tied to regional integration.
At the center of the discussions is the EAC Roaming Framework adopted in 2014, which was intended to reduce the cost of voice calls, SMS and data services across borders. While some member states later implemented aspects of the One Network Area initiative, the benefits have remained inconsistent across the bloc.
EAC officials now acknowledge that the earlier framework did not go far enough.
“While significant progress has been made, Partner States have also jointly implemented various initiatives, including the One Network Area, which have provided valuable lessons,” Uganda’s Principal Regional Integration Officer for Science and Technology George Lwevoola said during the opening session Monday.
But regional studies reviewed during the meetings point to deeper structural problems that have slowed implementation for years.
According to findings presented by the EAC Secretariat, regional roaming reforms have been hindered by inconsistent telecom regulations, high interconnection and transit charges, tax disparities between countries, fraud risks and weak enforcement mechanisms.
The study, conducted with support from the World Bank under the Eastern African Regional Digital Integration Project, also found that the existing framework remains largely focused on traditional voice services even as mobile data has become central to trade, digital payments and online commerce.
That gap has become increasingly visible as East African economies push toward digital integration while consumers continue to face high mobile internet costs when crossing borders.
For cross-border traders and transport operators groups frequently cited in EAC integration policies — roaming costs remain a practical obstacle to doing business across neighbouring states.
The EAC Common Market Protocol guarantees the free movement of goods, labor and services within the bloc, but analysts say expensive and fragmented telecom systems continue to undermine that vision.
The region has previously recorded partial successes. Countries under the Northern Corridor Integration Projects, including Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan, introduced reduced roaming charges through the One Network Area arrangement beginning in 2014. The initiative led to lower calling rates and in some cases eliminated incoming roaming charges.
However, implementation across the wider EAC remained uneven, with different regulatory regimes and commercial interests slowing broader harmonization.
The entry of new member states in recent years has also added complexity to the bloc’s telecommunications integration agenda, requiring alignment of legal, technical and tax frameworks across a larger market.
Opening the latest talks, EAC Deputy Secretary-General Andrea Ariik Malueth described affordable connectivity as essential to regional trade and economic transformation.
“Affordable and seamless communication across borders is essential for deepening regional integration,” Ariik said.
Delegates meeting in Dar es Salaam are now reviewing a draft long-term roaming framework that proposes cost-based tariffs, stronger consumer protection measures and harmonized enforcement systems.
The recommendations are expected to be submitted to the EAC Sectoral Council on Transport, Communications and Meteorology for possible adoption.
Whether the latest framework succeeds where earlier efforts stalled may depend less on new declarations and more on whether member states are willing to align regulations, reduce telecom taxes and enforce common standards across the region.
