When the truth on an even day becomes untruth on an odd day
If the administration is a continuity in all the countries in the world, in Mali, this notion is not necessarily the best shared thing. The “operator” on the machine can sometimes go back to grinding without reason those who are not lucky enough to please him even though we thought the case was closed. The conviction, in November 2021, of the mobile telephone companies, Orange-Mali and Moov Africa/Malitel, to pay some 177 billion CFA francs to a one-person consumer association for the “offence” of answering machine billing to their customers, illustrates well respects the tendency that some have to put the administration under their boots, contrary to the general interest.
Although dismissed twice by the courts, the Malian Network of Telecommunications Consumers (Remacotem), without a seat and which boils down to the person of its president, Dr. Adama Traoré, succeeded in forceps to condemn, on appeal, two of the most job-providing companies in Mali. The astronomical amount of 177 billion FCFA that Orange Mali and the former Sotelma/Malitel should in principle pay to the Malian Consumer Network would undoubtedly mean bankruptcy for the two major mobile telephone operators in our country. Beyond the sprain made in the form (the big one was signed in February 2022 by a clerk admitted to claiming his pension rights on January 1, 2022 by order signed by the Minister of Justice dated December 24) , a flashback is needed to better understand what we have already described as “Scandal of the century” in our delivery last Friday.
What is it exactly? In response to the request from the President of the Court of First Instance of Commune III to give his opinion on Recomatem’s request against the above-mentioned mobile telephone operators, the President of the Malian Telecommunications/ICT Regulatory Authority and posts (AMRTP), at the time Dr. Choguel K. Maïga, current Prime Minister of the Transition, who has the gift of being clear, rigorous and constant in his political positions and administrative procedures, agreed to shed light on justice at the legal and technical levels.
If we can at this stage save the missions assigned to the AMRTP by the highest authorities at its creation on September 20, 2011 by ordinance n°2011-024/P-RM, we can note that the Director General , a brilliant PhD engineer in telecommunications, had decided clearly in favor of the two companies.
After having defined voicemail as a technical device that makes it possible to offer an electronic messaging service allowing deferred communication between two or more people and underlining the advantages of this technology, the president of the AMRTP indicated, concerning the invoicing of traffic telephone based on the principle of “Calling Party Pays” (CPP), that it is the user (the caller) who takes the initiative for the communication who bears the full price.
Last but not least. “When it is an international communication or between two different networks of the same country, a part is kept by the local operator and the other is paid to the remote operator. The correspondent who receives a call (called), under this regime, pays nothing at all”, wrote black on white, he was 9 years old, the president of the AMRTP to the president of the Court of Commune III. For the president of the AMRTP at the time, the principle of technical invoicing began as soon as network resources were mobilized at “unless the operator has voluntarily given up as in the case of the ‘beep’ system. Mobilization of resources means the use of the circuits made available between the caller and the called party for communication. This mobilization begins when the call back triggers the billing system”Choguel K. Maïga, said.
For the AMRTP, solicited, in Mali, and in several countries, the invoicing is started from the outcome of the call, from where the concept of effective call.
“Any service offered is chargeable”
“In telecommunications, a call is considered effective if the caller manages to reach his correspondent and they communicate normally; a feedback pulse automatically triggers the billing system and billing takes place for the elapsed time. If the caller is unable to reach his correspondent, but instead a talking machine (answering machine) is triggered, billing will take place until the caller hangs up or the space provided for the box is exhausted. vocal. For international calls, the voice announcement cannot be dissociated from the voicemail, because in this matter, a share must be paid to the operator of the called party’s correspondent as soon as the call is completed as before describe”. Explanations could not be clearer than crystal water.
In terms of legal analysis, the AMRTP reminded the Court that the Malian telecommunications sector is governed, among other things, by the Additional Acts of ECOWAS of January 17, 2007, the WAEMU Directives of March 23, 2006, Ordinance No. 2011-023/P-RM of September 28, 2011 relating to telecommunications and information and communication technologies, Ordinance No. 2011-024/P-RM of September 28, 2011 regulating the telecommunications/ICT and post sector. These texts are supplemented by the opinions and decisions of the regulator.
“The various texts indicate what can be understood by telecommunications service and the conditions under which it is provided in the case of a call. Thus, according to Article 3 of Ordinance No. 2011-023/P-RM of September 28, 2011, telecommunications services are services normally provided for remuneration which consist entirely or mainly of the transmission or routing of signals or a combination of these functions on telecommunications networks but which excludes services consisting in providing content using telecommunications networks and services or exercising editorial responsibility for this content”, specified the great head of the Authority in his time, adding that the provision by the operator of an announcement to indicate the unavailability or the non-response of the correspondent with the possibility of leaving a message constitutes a service offered and that against payment. According to the AMRTP, the principle is that any service offered is chargeable. The only exception to this principle is the obligation to route emergency calls free of charge. Defying the directive of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the AMRTP added that no universal regulation exists in this area; each administration has its own regulations or accepted and tolerated practice. “In the case of Mali, the service not having been specifically regulated, it was tolerated and accepted that billing begins at the start of the announcement, the caller having in all cases 10 to 20 seconds to hang up before the start of theannouncement”. For all these reasons, the AMRTP, with regard to the technical-legal arguments put forward, indicated to the judge that the invoicing of the disputed announcement as practiced by the telecommunications operators Sotelma-SA (current Moov Africa/Malitel) and Orange- Mali is legal and complies with the principle of tariff freedom provided for by the regulations in force and does not violate any opinion or decision of the regulator; it is regular because the cost of the second invoiced at 1.8 FCFA including tax actually corresponds to the rate regulated by the AMRTP, namely 108 FCFA including tax per minute. It is the silence of the Prime Minister which intrigues in this crisis whereas a single sentence of Choguel K. Maïga could put an end to the imbroglio visibly maintained until high places.
El hadj AB HAIDARA
Today-Mali N°302 of Friday March 4, 2022.
