Telkom is seeking an overall increase of 2,4% in the basket of products and services that it offers.
In terms of the formula used by Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) — the Consumer Price Index (CPI) minus 3,5%, plus carry-over — Telkom said it would have been allowed to file an overall increase of 17,2%. It had however decided to submit an overall increase of 2,4%, that would come into effect on August 1.
Compared to the CPI used in the tariff filing, customers were set to experience a decrease in real terms of 8,7%, according to Telkom.
‘Pricing is a key element of the value proposition of Telkom,” says Godfrey Ntoele, Telkom’s group executive for national sales and marketing.
The filing makes provision for the bulk of call charges to remain unchanged. Long-distance calls, outgoing fixed-line calls to cellphones and outgoing calls to other licensed operators and public payphones, will remain unchanged.
The minimum charge for post-paid local calls (0 to 50km) will increase by 9,4% and the per-second tariff for local calls during standard time will increase by 3,1%, and by 9,2% during Callmore time.
Telkom said the overall adjustment in the international arena is 0,2%. Tariffs to certain destinations will increase, such as China, while call charges to other destinations will decrease. Two examples of the reduction in telecommunications charges are calls to the United Kingdom and the United States.
In both instances call charges to fixed-line destinations will be reduced by 5%, and will cost 90 cents per minute (including VAT) during peak time and 80 cents per minute (including VAT) during global off-peak times.
Subscription charges for ADSL, Do Broadband and Telkom internet will remain unchanged. – I-Net Bridge