VoIP competition drives African telecom prices down

You want to know how competition works, even if it's not legal? In 2005, one report found, nearly all African telcos were charging more than $1/minute for international calls. By last year, only 19 of them were, and about half were charging around 25 cents per minute. VoIP isn't legal in a lot of those countries, so the telcos are reacting not to licensed competition but to real competition. And it's worth noting that the real VoIP cost is far less than 25 cents per minute, which indicates that there's a huge "risk premium" built into the rate--a premium that will largely go away when operators don't have to worry about being carted off to jail.

For more about how VoIP is driving down the cost of African telephony:
- read this article from Tectonic

Related Article:
VoIP in Africa shows market forces in action. Report