WEDNESDAY, 10.30AM
INTERNATIONAL callback operators have been given two weeks to shut their local operations by the SA Telecommunications Regulatory Authority.
Satra chairman Nape Maepa said the callback operators are contravening the Telecommunications Act, which says that only licensed entities may provide telecoms services. Telkom is the only licensed telecoms service provider in SA, and has a five-year statutory monopoly to allow it to supply 4-million new lines to previously unserviced communities.
The callback operators, who have been making an estimated R18-million a month by offering local callers and businesses international telephone calls using cheaper foreign networks, have threatened to fight the decision.