Johannesburg, 15 Nov 2002
Telkom was forced last night to reinstate Transtel`s outgoing lines following a late afternoon interdict application. The court action followed Telkom barring all outgoing calls from the Transtel switchboard yesterday morning. The lines were restored late yesterday evening.
In a statement issued yesterday, Telkom said it cut the lines because it had obtained "conclusive" proof that Transtel was "illegally bringing international voice telecommunications traffic into SA " and had been doing so for at least three years.
Transnet subsidiary Transtel, together with Eskom Enterprises, is one of the major stakeholders in the planned second national telephone operator, which will be in direct competition with Telkom.
"Telkom applied a one-way suspension to Transnet`s lines ... after they had admitted to this activity. Based on judicial precedence, Telkom is obliged to act where it is aware of illegal activity on its network, otherwise it could be regarded as aiding and abetting this," said Mandla Ngcobo, Telkom`s group executive for legal services.
Transtel CEO Karl Socikwa, however, denies the organisation has been routing third-party international traffic, saying Telkom`s accusations are "blatant lies".
Phatang Nkhereanye, Transtel manager for regulatory and government affairs, says the accusations are completely unfounded and touch on the organisation`s right to operate as a business. He says Transnet has a long-standing right to operate international voice services within its organisation. "The right allows us to conduct international services to our entire organisation and in no way contravenes telecommunications regulations."
Nkhereanye says Transtel was issued with a letter by Telkom at around 2pm on Wednesday which stated lines would be cut two hours later. He says the two parties agreed to meet on Thursday morning, but by the time of the meeting, the order to cut lines had already been issued.
Socikwa says Telkom does not have the authority to unilaterally cut Transtel`s lines and the decision on such action is the jurisdiction of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). He says Telkom blatantly ignored the regulator`s authority in cutting Transtel`s lines.
However, Ngcobo says: "Transnet is not licensed to land international and third-party traffic from other operators. We have just received conclusive evidence that they are doing this, and it appears that this has been going on for at least three years. Telkom has lost significant revenue as a result of this."
The Pretoria court ruled that Telkom should immediately lift the one-way suspension and Transtel should cease all activities it was accused of, pending further proceedings next week.
"It is important to note that only the outgoing lines were barred," says Telkom spokesperson Andrew Weldrick. "Transtel could still get incoming calls, and their data network was not affected."
Weldrick says both parties will file court papers next Friday.
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