South African telecommunications company Telkom is facing a fine of billions of rands for anti-competitive practices.
The Competition Commission found on Tuesday that Telkom had “abused its dominant position by engaging in a pattern of anti-competitive practices”, said commissioner Menzi Simelane.
The commission has recommended a fine of up to 10% of Telkom’s annual revenue, which was worth about R37,6-billion in the year ending march 2003.
“This anti-competitive conduct is likely to have a serious impact on both the ICT sector and broader economic development,” said Simelane.
Telkom said it had “noted” the commission’s decision to refer certain of the complaints brought against it in 2002 by the South African Value-Added Network Services Association (Sava) and Omnilink to the Competition Tribunal for determination.
“We will respond to the Competition Tribunal in due course, once we have been served with their notice of motion,” said Telkom’s legal services group executive, Mandla Ngcobo.
Earlier the Competition Commission announced it had found Telkom’s conduct against value added network service (Vans) providers to be anti-competitive.
Ngcobo added that the commission’s further decision not to refer the “bundling complaint” to the tribunal demonstrated that the company had not unfairly leveraged its position as a provider of facilities in the Vans market.
“Telkom has consistently provided telecommunication facilities to Vans providers within the current legal and regulatory framework and the parameters as set out by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) in their previous rulings. We are confident that Telkom, as a Public Switched Telecommunications Services (PSTS) provider, has not abused its dominant position.
“These disputes with Sava relate to long-standing issues which are still pending before Icasa. While certain of these have been dealt with, the rulings were set aside on review and referred back to Icasa for their consideration, and others have yet to be finalised,” said Ngcobo. – I-Net Bridge