Last week the European Commission announced that it will force mobile companies to lower their excessively high international roaming charges and scrap all roaming charges for receiving calls abroad. A fortnight ago the annual meeting of the Arab ICT Regulators Network heard a presentation of a study of Middle East roaming charges that covered parts of North Africa. It also concluded that in the field of roaming that there was an absence of real competition and this was a strong disincentive to operators to negotiate lower prices. Sub-Saharan Africa’s solution? An expensive African Telecommunications Study to develop a single SIM card that can be used across the continent. Russell Southwood looks at the findings of the Egyptian study in the latest edition of Balancing Act News Update.