Safaricom has cut roaming charges for subscribers travelling to 21 countries across the world, giving them much needed relief from the usually exorbitant charges.

The telecoms firm has announced that it has signed roaming agreements with affiliates of Vodafone — its majority shareholder — in Albania, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland and Italy.

Other countries are Malta, New Zealand, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Netherlands, Turkey, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Lesotho and Mozambique.

Safaricom subscribers travelling to these countries will now receive 10 minutes of call time, 10 text messages and 10 megabytes of data for Ksh200 (just above $2) a significant drop from current rates.

“We have aggressively lobbied countries and our partners to ensure our subscribers can enjoy the same reliable communication services they have come to know in Kenya when they travel at significantly reduced rates,” said Bob Collymore, Safaricom’s chief executive officer.

For instance, Safaricom customers calling Kenya from Egypt will now pay just Ksh200 ($2,19) for ten minutes of conversation, a 77 per cent drop from the previous charge of over Ksh900 ($9.88).

Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda had agreed to cap roaming charges in the three states at about Ksh8.80 ($0.09) per minute beginning last September.

Safaricom says it is in talks with Uganda and Tanzania to implement reduced charges, lowering the cost of doing business in the region.

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“The company is also pursuing targeted agreements with other countries in the East African bloc such as Uganda and Tanzania,” Safaricom said in a statement announcing the new roaming rates.

Kenya is the only East Africa state that does not levy any taxes on cross-border calls and has been at the forefront of pushing for a common termination tariff.

Uganda levies Ksh7 ($0.08) levy on inbound calls from Kenya, Tanzania charges Ksh10 ($0.11), while Burundi charges Ksh13 ($0.14) as levy. This means any calls made by a Kenyan when roaming or directly calling from the country are subjected to the taxes.