Nairobi, March 9 -- Telecommunication firms in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) face increased competition in their continental roaming charges as regulators seek to lower the costs of cross-border ICT services.

Comesa is pushing for the harmonisation of the roaming network with other regional blocs in at least 29 African countries by next year.

Roaming enables a mobile subscriber to automatically make and receive voice calls, send and receive data, or access other services when travelling outside the geographical coverage area of their home network, by means of using a visited network.

Telecom operators enter into agreements to connect one another's customers across single or multiple geographies, with subscr...