Flat rates among SA's mobile operators will eradicate tariff complexities, promote sustainable competition and ultimately empower SA as a leader in telecommunications.
This is according to third operator Cell C's CEO, Alan Knott-Craig - former Vodacom CEO, mobile industry pioneer and now avid campaigner for SA's smaller players competing against the country's duopoly, Vodacom and MTN.
Knott-Craig says the Independent Communications Authority of SA's (ICASA's) Cost to Communicate programme - launched on Friday - is encouraging as a first step, but "now for delivery".
He says ICASA's programme, which includes "an aggressive timetable" for results, comes at a time when the consumer is a lot more sensitive to pricing than a year ago, when he took the reins at Cell C and kicked off what has become widely referred to as SA's "mobile price war".
Tireless lobbying
Cell C has met the regulator's proposals with optimism; following what Knott-Craig says has been a "long year of tireless lobbying for action".
He says it is encouraging that ICASA has committed to working on remedies, rather than a wider review that will yield little to no results.
The most important remedies in terms of evening out the telecoms playing field in SA, says Knott-Craig, are mandatory flat rates, higher mobile termination rates for "operators with significant market power", aggressive and sustained asymmetry, low-cost roaming, and mandatory site sharing.
"Flat rates will remove much of the obfuscation in industry pricing."
In February, mobile termination rates (MTRs) - the fees operators pay each other to terminate calls on their networks - reached the end of their glide path as instituted by ICASA. Currently sitting at 40c (a 68% reduction since 2011), Knott-Craig is lobbying for the rate to both drop and have asymmetry applied to it. Asymmetrical MTRs would mean that smaller players - Cell C and 8ta/Telkom Mobile - would pay lower MTRs than leading players Vodacom and MTN.
In the meantime, says Knott-Craig, Cell C is trying to simplify tariffs for consumers, "and we are gaining traction".
He says ICASA should also analyse pricing on a quarterly basis, and publish its findings for the consumer to be informed.
Telecoms absurdity
MD of World Wide Worx, Arthur Goldstuck, says ICASA has recognised how important pricing and the real cost of communicating is to the consumer now.
"For the first time, there is a much clearer approach to transparency around the cost of data and SMS - and there are other areas where this is also necessary. We need to understand what makes up the cost of calls."
That said, Goldstuck says it is "almost unfair" to put pressure on SA's operators for transparency and dissection of costs, seeing as other markets are not compelled to do so, "but the difference is, in other markets, pricing is both competitive and consumer friendly. So they don't need [measures like this]."
The absurdity when it comes to South African telecoms, says Goldstuck, is that consumers have never been able to tell exactly what they are paying for calls. "This has always been an issue and ICASA has always paid it lip service, but no one knows exactly what they are paying, because costs are hidden in bundles and time-based pricing."
High hopes
Telkom says it is in the process of considering the content of ICASA's cost-lowering programme and any possible impact that it may have on its business. "The company is not in a position to comment further at this time."
Vodacom says it is looking forward to seeing the details that go along with the various initiatives ICASA has committed to - "and also being able to explain all the steps that we've been taking in support of ICASA's broader aims".
Knott-Craig concludes: "The current regulatory model has shown itself to be flawed. Hopefully the result of the new review will mean that SA can take its place as a leader in telecommunications again."
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