Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille says she wants the operators to justify to parliament why interconnection rates can’t come down to the levels proposed by the portfolio committee. She says parliament will hold hearings around mid-October at which the operators will be given a chance to give their input.
SHOOT: I hope it happens, but historical precedents show that operators tend to keep rates high in favour of giving up market share. Those 'shares' will be picked up by tiny operators like Cell C and Virgin Mobile.
ANC MP and former deputy justice minister Johnny de Lange: “Of course you must try as far as possible to avoid conflict and going to court but, while you’re sitting and waffling on for years and years, we are paying billions and billions and billions of rand to this industry, which they should not be getting. And you seem to fail to understand that. Every day and every minute that you waste … you’re exacerbating hte problem."
The parliamentary portfolio committee on communications will issue a statement on Tuesday afternoon in which it will call on mobile network operators to reduce interconnection rates to 60c/minute by 1 November 2009, and to 15c/minute by 1 November 2012.
Among other things, the committee’s draft statement says the rates, set at R1,25/minute during peak hours, are “exorbitant and excessive, resulting in extremely high telecoms prices” and that they are the consequence of “apparent collusion between dominant mobile operators in the country”.
“The high cost of mobile and fixed-line telecoms has impacted adversely on the SA economy and negatively on citizens, particularly the poor and marginalised,” the draft statement says. “The present situation is socially indefensible and economically unjustifiable”.
The statement says further that Icasa should “act professionally, effectively and boldly to regulate interconnection rates in SA as a matter of urgency”.
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