The South Gauteng High Court has ruled the Independent Communications Authority's (ICASA) new mobile termination rate structure "unlawful and invalid", but has suspended the order of invalidity for a period of six months.
This comes after MTN and Vodacom took legal action against the regulator over its new mobile termination rates (MTR) - the fees operators pay to carry calls on one another's network - introduced in January.
The mobile giants argued ICASA had not carried out the necessary processes prior to publishing the MTR terminations, which greatly favour smaller players Cell C and Telkom Mobile, and launched an urgent application to have the court set aside the regulations and review the process.
Today's ruling allows ICASA to go ahead with instituting the new MTRs for 2014 as laid out in its regulations, but the body will review the three-year glide path these include.
As of tomorrow, MTRs for Vodacom and MTN will drop to 20c - half the current MTR rate - while Cell C and Telkom Mobile will be able to charge the two larger players more than double that (44c) to terminate calls on their network.
However, the asymmetry for next year and 2016 will remain under review, with a fresh set of regulations due to be announced in October, as per the court's six month suspension of invalidity order.
The glide path would have seen Vodacom and MTN paying their smaller rivals four times the amount they would receive in return (10c) from March 2016.
ICASA, Vodacom and MTN will now study the judgement in its entirety.
Following the High Court judge's ruling Vodacom said it felt its challenge was justified. "Our position has been vindicated." The company says it will study the judgement and revert with a response in due course.
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