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ICASA freezes MTRs for a year

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 26 Sept 2017
ICASA believes the pro-competitive conditions imposed on licensees in 2014 are still relevant.
ICASA believes the pro-competitive conditions imposed on licensees in 2014 are still relevant.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is keeping mobile termination rates (MTRs) unchanged for the next 12 months.

This is according to a statement from the regulator, which was giving feedback on its findings of the 2014 pro-competitive remedies.

MTRs are the fees mobile operators pay each other to carry calls on their networks.

"The definitions of mobile termination markets and fixed termination markets in terms of regulation 3 of the 2014 Call Termination Regulations remain unchanged, with the exception of the exclusion of termination of internationally originated voice calls," ICASA says.

The regulator says competition in the relevant markets "still remain ineffective" and believes the pro-competitive conditions imposed on licensees in 2014 are still relevant. It says licensees that offer wholesale voice call termination services continue to have significant market power in their own network for wholesale voice call termination.

The original Call Termination Regulations where introduced in 2010 and in 2014 new MTRs were announced that strongly favoured SA's smaller players, Cell C and Telkom Mobile. These were set with a three-year glide path which was due to come to an end in September 2017.

"ICASA has received requests to extend the current glide path validity period owing to concerns regarding the time required to conduct a cost study in order to determine new termination rates for the next three years."

ICASA says it has reviewed these requests and published an amendment to the Call Termination Regulations, 2014, of the Electronic Communications Act of 2005 to extend the current glide path for a further 12 months.

ICASA will publish a briefing note on its Web site by no later than 30 September outlining the consultative approach and timeliness to determine new termination rates.

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