"We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now qualified to do anything, with nothing" By Konstantin Josef Jireček, a Czech historian, diplomat and slavist.
If I may, a colleague drew my attention to the issue of +211 being discussed in Internet fora and thought I could shed some light on the subject. I have not been lately following the fora due to pressures on time and many competing priorities.
That said, however, to my knowledge, all operators in RSS have not completed registration with GSM-A, an international body which co-ordinates between members and operators exchange of traffic, such as international calls and roaming between operators, be it on bilateral or multi-lateral mobile traffic exchange across international borders.
GSM-A registration for mobile operators enable them negotiate rates with other traffic carriers for inbound traffic to RSS or outbound traffic termination into other geographies around the globe, through bilateral and multi-lateral agreements with international carriers.
And because of absence of these arrangements for most operators in RSS, international carriers forwarding traffic to RSS are free to charge any rates and not bound by any agreements with local operators in RSS. For instance, Zain South Sudan, Gemtel, Vivacell or MTN and Sudani mobile operators in RSS all need to sign agreements for traffic exchange (call terminations for inbound or outbound) with other international carriers, but this is not possible without registration with GSM-A (you can google GSMA to learn more about it).
So, Zain, Gemtel, Vivacell, Sudani and MTN all need to gain registration with GSM-A, and there are specific requirements for admission into GSMA membership which the Ministry of Telecommunications and Postal Services in RSS (as the regulator) should publish to GSMA about in-country mobile operators. The information is important for commercial reasons and purposes of settling call charges between legitimate entities in the international system of mobile communications.
The Ministry (MTPS) needs to write to GSMA to confirm the status of local operators (licenses, frequencies, etc) which GSMA would use to register local operators and publish the information to international carriers, most of who are GSMA members. As members, operators are required to adhere to agreed code of practice and industry standards for carriage and terminations of inbound and outbound traffic between countries, operators and so forth. This is currently lacking, hence the high rates of calls terminations to RSS.
The registration process in addition to concluding commercial agreements with international carries may take between 3 – 6 months. We have written to the MTPS to follow up on publishing in-country mobile operators information to GSMA to confirm status of operators, etc and some of these operators might only be in South Sudan without footprint in other countries, and little known operators would find themselves in difficult situation trying to negotiate better commercial terms for their interconnection with international carriers, whereas those with large footprint already have existing interconnection and roaming agreements with carriers and would not have to go through protracted commercial negotiations to agree rates for termination of outbound or inbound calls for RSS.
The Government cannot do these negotiations for operators, it only needs to give information about these operators to GSMA and the operators are left on their own to reach bilateral or multi-lateral agreements with carriers for their calls in the international market.
So, even though ITU has assigned +211 country code to us, carriers are free to interconnect or not interconnect with RSS operators as based on commercial agreements with in-country operators on competitive terms. Our Telecom ministry has now taken steps to write to GSMA so that local operators gain acceptance for registration with GSMA for new comers as well as updates for existing members and any of their new operations.
Hope this clarifies some of the issues surrounding +211 interconnection with international carriers of mobile traffic.
Kind regards
Dr. Hakim
Zain South Sudan
South Sudan Make a first international call with the new country code- New Nation, New Phone Code 211
Manyang David Mayar | Juba, South Sudan
Map of Sudan and South Sudan
South Sudan’s transition to establishing all the trappings of full independence and statehood is moving ahead rapidly. The latest evidence of this came Friday when Zain, the mobile telephone company, launched its official switch from the old Sudanese 249 international dialing code to the new South Sudanese country code 211. Other phone companies will follow suit begin starting on Saturday. The new code was granted to South Sudan by the International Telecommunications Corporation months before independence, but Friday’s phone call by the Undersecretary in the Ministry of Telecommunications to his daughter in Australia marked the first time it has ever been used.
Please click on the link below to hear VOA’s Manyang David Mayar’s report on the historic phone call.
The Zain mobile communications compsany operator in South Sudan yesterday launched the South Sudan new country code, +211 replacing the Sudan code +249.
By Waakhe Simon Wudu
JUBA, 1st October 2011 [Gurtong] – The Zain mobile communications compsany operator in South Sudan yesterday launched the South Sudan new country code, +211 replacing the Sudan code +249.
Subscribers in South Sudan now have less than three months to replace their lines, the Zain General Manager, Hakeem Dario urged their clients to cooperate for the new changes to take effect.
Speaking during the launch, Hakeem clarified that changing the old country code into the new one is part of steps Zain is undertaking towards intensifying her investment plans in the new nation.
“This is a commitment from Zain to invest in South Sudan’s telecommunication sector, in the next few months we will be creating awareness on the new code changes to our clients,” Hakeem said.
He pointed out that, this move is part of the rights as articulated in the South Sudan Transitional Constitution which gives the right to access of information.
He stressed that, in collaboration with the South Sudan’s government, Zain will improve access to information in intensifying socio-economic growth to alleviate poverty in the country.
It will also introduce new services such as Mobile Banking which will facilitate easy and faster payments of bills.
Hakeem also said that the company is strategising to move from States to County levels in order to widen the coverage.
Meanwhile representing the government of South Sudan and launching the Zain Code, Mr. George Garang, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Information said that, Zain’s move to use the Country’s new code is part of the efforts to intensify South Sudan’s identity.
“Today we are launching a new country code, what we are doing here is to embrace our identity,” George Garang said while calling his daughter in Australia as the first caller using Zain with the country code +211.
Garang also urged the rest of the telecommunication companies in the country to do the same.
Source: Gurtong
Dear All country men and women,
Greetings from Juba, and am very much delighted to be associated with the first launch of new country code +211 and making of the first call from South Sudan to signal the start of yet another era and journey in our independence march. I don’t feel like a stranger among you here, I have known these fora for years and interacted with many of you on countless occasions, these fora have brought us together, and we have always expressed our frustrations and disappointments here as well as jubilations and hopes for our nascent country and nation.
History records it for us that a member of this forum, one of your own numbers from the Diaspora was lucky to be associated with the first historic launch of our new country code +211, it’s a great honour and I appreciate very much your support and voices. This is part of the journey on the right of access to information for our people to enjoy their constitutional rights of access to information and right to information enable by media and communications infrastructures that are being built up in South Sudan.
Many of my friends here too, may have been surprised to learn now that am leading Zain South Sudan on this feat to be first to launch our country code +211, but I was inclined to let actions speak louder than words and therefore wasn’t in a haste to rush to publicity the time for which will come, as indeed it did on Friday 30th September 2011.
Let’s all work as a team to build South Sudan and move it forward for ourselves and our children and future generations.
Kind regards
In order for your to call your son on the +211 code, he must be using a new replacement SIM card to be able to receive calls. Currently most people are still on their old SIM card with the code +249.
What will happen in the next few weeks till December is what we call SIM SWAP, in which customers hand in their old SIM cards to be replaced by new SIM cards with the +211 code programmed to received calls locally or internationally routed to them through the +211 code.
So, your son hasn’t changed and swapped his SIM card yet, which is why you are having difficulty calling his old number which is still on +249.
Once he has changed his SIM card to a new SIM card, then you can call him. This goes for all the operators if their customers have old SIM cards with the old +249 country code of Sudan.
Hope this explains it.
Best regards and thanks for your support.
Dr. Hakim Moi.
South Sudan +211 country code goes live
Dennis Mbuvi 03.10.2011 kl 15:48 | CIO East Africa
South Sudan’s mobile service provider, Gemtel, has tested and gone live with South Sudan’s +211 dialling code. Gemtel went live with the code on October 1st, about 2 months ahead of the December 15th deadline. Major General Madut Biar Yel, the Republic of South Sudan’s Minister for Telecommunication and Postal Services also announced that one other mobile operator would be switching to the country’s +211 code. Zain is also reported to have launched the new dialling code . Zain operations in Sudan and South Sudan were not part of the stake sold to Bharti Airtel and later re-branded to Airtel in several African countries.
South Sudan’s mobile service provider, Gemtel, has tested and gone live with South Sudan’s +211 dialling code. Gemtel went live with the code on October 1st, about 2 months ahead of the December 15th deadline. Major General Madut Biar Yel, the Republic of South Sudan’s Minister for Telecommunication and Postal Services also announced that one other mobile operator would be switching to the country’s +211 code. Zain is also reported to have launched the new dialling code . Zain operations in Sudan and South Sudan were not part of the stake sold to Bharti Airtel and later re-branded to Airtel in several African countries.
South Sudan became a republic on the 9th July 2011 after voting to secede from Sudan in January this year. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) granted South Sudan the +211 dialling code in July this year.
Previously, most of South Sudan’s telecom operators were relying on Sudan’s +249 dilling code. Gemtel at some point has used the Ugandan +256 dialling code, especially in a period between 2008 and 2009. The move was however met with a lot of opposition in Uganda and at one time resulted in a spat between Uganda’s MTN and the incumbent Uganda Telecom over interconnection fee.
South Sudan currently has three mobile operators, Vivacell, Gemtel and Zain. In 2010, South Sudan’s Government sold Gemtel to the Libyan Arab Investment Portfolio (LAP) Green Networks, which is linked Muammar Gadaffi, Libya’s deposed leader.
Yel also made other announcements on the country’s alpha-numeric codes and postal service. “We have also received our Alpha-numeric Country Codes “SS” (Alpha-2) and “SSD” (Alpha-3) from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and will soon be advising you of arrangements to implement our Internet domain (dotSS). As you may have heard, these Alpha-codes have many applications, including the national currency (SSP) and passports (SSD), among others. In the same vein, we are advanced with arrangements to join the Universal Postal Union (UPU) that will permit Juba to have its own International Postal Exchange for mail and parcel delivery,” he said
PaanLuel Wël is the founder and editor-in-chief of PaanLuel Wël Media Ltd, a news website that covers news, opinions, analysis, history, culture and literature of South Sudan and the world. Founded in July 2011 by PaanLuel Wël to create a platform for free expression and constructive dialogue, the website features articles from various contributors, including columnists, commentators, poets, authors, activists and academics. PaanLuel Wël believes that media can play a vital role in informing, educating and empowering the people to participate in nation-building and social transformation. He also believes that media can foster a culture of dialogue, tolerance and diversity among different communities and groups, and hopes to inspire and mentor the next generation of South Sudanese writers and journalists.
