The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has granted stakeholders until Friday 9July to make further written submissions regarding draft call termination regulations.
According to the draft regulations, interconnect rates were meant to drop to 65c per minute from 1 July, to 50c in 2011, and to 40c from July 2012.
However, the authority has a number of objections to work through that were raised at the public hearings on the draft call termination regulations, held in Midrand, this week
Stakeholders raised a multitude of concerns, chiefly around the proposed glide-path of the rate decrease and how this may negatively affect their businesses.
These concerns were raised mainly by Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and Nashua. Counter to this, however, was the desired result of enhanced competition that would ultimately benefit consumers through a reduction in retail prices, notes ICASA.
The authority is, therefore, of the view that the granting of extra time to provide additional information, pursuant to the public hearings, could have an effect on the issuing of the final regulations and the implementation date for rate reductions.
ICASA will keep the public informed of further developments in this regard.
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