South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance has said Minister of Communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri is to blame for what has been described as exorbitant and monopolistic tariffs introduced by dual-listed Telkom last Saturday.
DA shadow minister for communications, Dene Smuts, said on Wednesday that everything had gone wrong in 2000 for 2001 when Matsepe-Casaburri refused to ratify the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s (Icasa) proposed tariff cuts — consequently, “we have had many debates on that subject”.
Smuts added: “The minister undertook in debate with me in Parliament that she would not again block reasonable proposals from Icasa.”
In June — when the telecommunications group posted its huge profits — Smuts cried foul and said its tariffs were too high.
“Although they have demonstrated that profits in the fixed-line sector derived mostly from savings and cost cutting, I believe the tariffs are still too high,” she said.
“The tariffs affected are under the old price cap and though low overall, I think the 5,5% hike in local calls should be brought down.”
Once Icasa’s new rate regime comes into effect this month, the phone monopoly will be given 30 days to re-file with the regulator.
Not only Telkom to blame
Turning to costs for cellphone-bound calls, the Communications Users’ Association of South Africa (Cuasa) said the full blame for exorbitant tariffs should not be focused on Telkom.
Cuasa spokesperson Ray Webber fingered Icasa and the cellphone operators as the ones who are largely to blame. It was only in 2001 that Telkom effected a revised interconnection deal, marking an end to lengthy engagements with the MTN Group and Vodacom — ahead of Cell C’s deployment.
“The fixed-to-mobile interconnect tariffs are way out of line and the cell operators are making a killing, hiding behind their so-called competition. This is nothing more than a thin veneer of competition, while they laugh all the way to the bank,” he said.
Although it costs R1,89 a minute to make a call to a cellphone locally, some rural communities — mostly poor — are set to enjoy discounted rates this year when under-serviced area licences (Usal) operators start rolling out.
One of the first Usal operators to be licensed, Thinta Thinta Telecoms of KwaZulu-Natal, said its rates could be up to 40% lower than those charged by existing national operators.
Thinta Thinta and its peers will provide both fixed and mobile telephony and are also tasked with increasing telecommunications access in their respective underprivileged areas. — I-Net Bridge
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