South Sudan launches first international voice gateway

South Sudan's first international gateway has been launched via a partnership between the government and private firm MGI.

The gateway will facilitate the routing of international calls to reduce costs for subscribers.

South Sudan's minister of information and broadcasting Michael Makuei Lueth said the gateway will improve local internet connectivity.

"The new international gateway we are launching is a public-private partnership with international partners experienced in telecommunication that includes shared revenue agreement with government and also promotion of low cost and quality voices and data traffic to the world," said Lueth.

MGI's General Manager Martin Keller said the partnership will also facilitate the transfer of knowledge, contribute to capacity building and generate revenue for the country's treasury.

He also revealed plans to introduce a data gateway.

"We have completed the international voice gateway and are now working on the data gateway, which will improve Internet services and allow South Sudan to take its place in the world of global technology," Keller said.

In the telecoms ecosystem, an international gateway is a telephone number through which international calls are routed in order to get lower rates on international long distance charges; it could also be used to make international calls through voice over IP networks.

Prior to the launch of the international gateway, operators in South Sudan were using separate gateways for international calls.

A reduction in costs will come as a relief to local subscribers who have been mostly on the receiving end of the government's aggressive efforts to generate revenue to cushion the effects of economic hardship.

This is related to the country's December 2013 crisis which resulted in government imposing a 40% increase in call rates.

The market has also been challenging for operators. South Sudan initially had three operators - MTN and Zain and Vivacell, but Vivacell was forced to shut down operations due to license disagreements with the government.

Multiple challenges in the market have resulted in a low telecoms penetration rate and according to most recent stats, only one in three inhabitants has access to telecoms services.