The spotlight will next month fall on what consumer and business interest groups describe as excessive tariffs charged by local cell operators for mobile call services.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) is set to announce a public consultative process on high rates soon.
Having studied the Communications Users Association of South Africa’s (Cuasa) formal complaint into exorbitant charges, the regulator expects to kick off a consultative process, Icasa’s Nontsikelelo Mbono said.
While public hearings seem likely in a few months, an update will be communicated to the public in July, she added.
“We are eagerly looking forward to hearing an update and hope that they [Icasa] will soon initiate a formal process that will see all stakeholders participating,” Cuasa spokesperson Ray Webber said.
The imminent announcement may be in line with World Wide Worx’s expectations — the research house has argued that the regulator had to expedite a process that would bring about lower mobile services rates.
“Icasa is off the mark and looking at the wrong point — it must ensure it addresses correct issues. High cost of cell usage is more of an issue than the debate around subsidisation,” World Wide Worx managing director Arthur Goldstuck said.
“They [operators] must be transparent in respect of these charges,” he stated, arguing that the continuation of high rates urgently necessitated public scrutiny on various aspects including interconnection agreements and other factors.
Against the background of GSM telephony penetration levels — above 50% — Goldstuck argued that it was not a national agenda to get more phones to the people but what was more important was ensuring that people could afford to make calls but this could only be possible if tariffs were lowered.
“Handset subsidisation was a success story … it had an incredible trickle down effect, but that’s over now we need to move on and focus on the costs,” Goldstuck asserted.
After several attempts to get comment from Vodacom, which is in favour of an unregulated market, the operator failed to respond. Cell C is yet to disclose its position while MTN is set to side with World Wide Worx. ‒I-Net Bridge