Telkom`s tariff adjustments for 2001 have come in well below inflation for the fifth consecutive year, comparing favourably with the telephony charges of a number of developed and developing countries according to a recent survey by independent telecommunications tariffs analyst, Tarifica.
Telkom`s Sales and Marketing Deputy Vice-President, Pinky Moholi, today reiterated that the Company`s 2001 total revenues from adjustment on its basket services - those that it provides exclusively - will rise by 5,4%. This is 1,5% below the projected inflation rate or Consumer Price Index (CPI) of 6,9% pegged for January by independent economics analysts, Econometrix.
Telkom filed the tariff adjustments with the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) for approval on 1 November, but did not disclose the details of specific adjustments of individual elements of the basket pending the start of renegotiation of its interconnect agreement with the mobile operators. While Telkom had hoped a new interconnect agreement with Vodacom and MTN would have a positive downward effect on certain of its tariffs, the parties have unfortunately not yet brokered a new agreement.
Telkom`s new call tariffs take effect from January 4, 2001. All other charges such as rentals and installations will be adjusted from January 1 next year.
The adjustments will see the minimum call charge - covering the set-up cost of connecting a call to Telkom`s network and initial talktime - increased from 50 cents to 58 cents. From January next year, 58 cents will buy 2,7 minutes (166,1 seconds) of talktime for a local call in Standard Time and 7,6 minutes (459,5 seconds) of talktime for a local call in Callmore Time (from 7pm to 7am weekdays, and from 7pm on Fridays to 7am on Mondays).
On average, local call charges during standard time will go up from 18 cents to 21 cents per minute, while calls in the 50 - 100km distance band will not increase, remaining static at 60 cents per minute during standard time.
Even with the increase, Telkom`s local call charges are extremely competitive, with a recent Tarifica survey ranking its three minute local call charges during standard time third cheapest of those in 25 developing and developed nations.
Payphone calls have been increased for the first time in two years, going up from 60 cents to 70 cents for the initial talktime period. The metering period for a local call made from a payphone will be reduced from 172,7 to 160 seconds.
Although the charge for local PrepaidFone calls will increase from 21 cents to 24 cents per minute during standard time, the rental for PrePaidFone will remain unchanged for 2001.
The cost of calls to cellular numbers from Telkom`s fixed-line network also remain unchanged.
"As part of our tariff pricing strategy, Telkom has offset the increase in local call charges with a drop in national call rates, which will see the cost of calls in the greater than 100km distance band sliding from R1,24 to R1,22 a minute during standard time," said Moholi.
She added that Telkom has made huge strides in re-balancing its tariffs, as evidenced by the Tarifica survey. By January next year, a three minute long distance call made on Telkom`s network during Callmore time will be less than the average charged in 26 developing and developed nations.
"International call rates will remain the same, but further reductions are expected. These have become much more cost-related and competitive, following seven rounds of rate reductions in just three years, which translate into a real decrease of about 50%. This is helping corporate South Africa transcend physical trading boundaries in a more affordable way and to adapt competitively to the challenges of the globalised marketplace," said Moholi.
Tarifica`s survey shows that Telkom`s three-minute peak time international call charges to the USA compare favourably with Austria, France, Greece, Hungary and Portugal. Telkom is also well below average for international calls made to adjacent countries, with peak and off-peak calls from South Africa to the SADC countries costing less than calls to adjacent countries from New Zealand, Portugal, the UK, Belgium, Australia, Singapore, Argentina and Mexico.
Residential line rentals will rise from R57,26 to R62,70, while business rentals will increase from R75,70 to R83,30 a month. Despite this increase, Telkom`s business rentals are rated less expensive than those charged in 14 other countries, including Denmark, Belgium, Brazil, Italy, Sweden, Ireland, Switzerland, Norway, the Netherlands, Austria, the UK, Mexico and Argentina.
Telkom will not be increasing the installation charges for several of its services, and charges for Primenet, reconnection and change of customer transactions will also remain unchanged.
Installation charges for business and residential exchange lines remain steady on R207,77, as do ISDN2 (basic rate) on R432,92 and ISDN30 (primary rate) on R22 572. The cost for multiple exchange line installations also remains unchanged on R186,96. On the whole, Telkom`s connection charges are cheaper than those of 25 other countries, while South Africa has the third cheapest basic rate ISDN connection fee of 26 countries surveyed.
ISDN customers receive a further windfall as the rental on ISDN2 (basic rate) drops from R196,49 to R175,23 for business customers. At the top end of the scale, the ISDN30 (primary rate) rental increases from R2 270,88 to R2 498,99.
Good news for customers over 70 is that both their installation and rental costs will remain at this year`s rates. Social pensioners will pay only R55,04 for a new line and R31,20 for their rental.
Installation charges for indoor extensions register only a marginal adjustment, from R173,28 to R188,10 for a single indoor extension, and from R142,50 to R153,90 for multiple indoor extensions.
Telkom`s tariff adjustments come in the wake of improved performance across several levels of its business. The first six months of this financial year have seen Telkom bringing its repair time for subrate and megaline business services down to 5,4 hours and 3,3 hours respectively, compared to the 12.1 hours and 4.1 hours it took to repair these services in March 1999.
87,2% of business faults are being cleared within 48 hours, a significant improvement on the 76,9% of these faults cleared within the same period in March last year. Business voice installations are being done faster than ever before, within an average of 11,2 days from order. It took 19,6 days to install business voice services in March 1999.
A record 84% of residential faults are currently being cleared within 48 hours, a marked improvement on the 68% Telkom was able to repair within the same timeframe in March last year. 85% of new residential services are installed within 28 days, again a substantial improvement on the March 1999 figure that stood at 77%.
A call charge calculator is now available on Telkom`s web site at www.telkom.co.za, which enables customers to calculate the charge of direct dialed national and international calls as well as calls to cellular phones. Calls from PrepaidFones, public payphones and from manual exchanges are excluded.
Call management information is available on the internet, which allows PABX customers with call management systems to calculate the cost of calls accurately. These customers will have to register to gain access to the information.
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