THE Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) will today meet with representatives of telecoms companies to discuss the lowering of interconnection rates after reports that the Department of Communications was on a quest to fast-track the process.
The meeting was prompted by the continuing public discussion around the cost of call termination and pressure from the department that fees be reduced from R1,25 a minute to 60c on November 1.
Representatives from , MTN, Cell C, , Neotel and internet services provider associations were initially due to meet with Icasa last week but the meeting was postponed.
According to the regulator’ s spokesman, Jubie Matlou, at the previous meeting last month to discuss the same issue, operators had already committed themselves to reducing interconnection costs.
Communications department spokesman Tiyani Rikhotso yesterday confirmed reports that it wanted to see interconnection rates — which cellphone operators pay each other for switching a call between networks — drop before Christmas.
This is despite the regulator and the operators having already agreed to conclude negotiations by the end of December and to implement the process from February 1 .
“The discussion with operators has been taking place for quite a while and there hasn’t been any movement,” said Rikhotso.
“Hence, we as a department would like to see this issue resolved as soon as possible.”
If all goes accordingly, the interconnection fee may fall by another 15c each year until it costs only 15c by 2012, which will eventually translate to an 88% cut.
“There is no disagreement as far as the issue (of needing to cut costs) is concerned. What we are dealing with is the figure (by how much calls are cut) and by when we need to slash the costs .”
Rikhotso said the department would ask Icasa to issue a directive to operators on how much and when to cut costs.
This week the department will issue a policy directive ordering Icasa to put in place a pricing structure that will reduce cellphone costs. The operators will have until next month to implement the cost-cutting strategy.
“We operate within a framework, so we welcome government’s intervention on this matter to try and speed up lowering of costs,” said Matlou. He said that Icasa will wait for the department’s directives “and we will take it from there”.
Operators said they could not comment on the issue as they were still awaiting a policy directive from Parliament’s communications portfolio committee , which was expected to meet with them tomorrow.
mathek@bdfm.co.za