Icasa cuts mobile and fixed line tariffs

The proposed tariffs were set to see a drop in termination rates, which are the amounts charged by telecommunications companies to carry each other’s calls.

The authority planned to reduce the rate for both fixed and mobile calls to just eight cents a minute from 1 March 2017.

However, the reductions would be gradual over three years.

The new rates follow a court action in March in which the High Court in Joburg found that the regulator’s 2014 call termination regulations were invalid and unlawful.

The court, however, ruled that the reductions to termination rates would take effect as planned on 1 April for a period of six months during which the authority was required to regularise its tariff adjustment process.

Mobile termination rates would remain at 20c per minute while fixed line termination rates would remain at their current 12c per minute for calls in the same area code, and 19c per minute for long distance calls.

However, mobile and fixed rates would reach 16c per minute from 1 March 2015 to February 2016, after which the rates would drop to 12c per minute until February 2017.

The rates would finally be cut to 8c per minute from 1 March 2017 to 28 February 2018.

“At this point I would like to remind industry, consumers and the public that the authority is committed to reducing the costs of communications in South Africa,”, said Icasa committee chairperson Nomvuyiso Batyi.

“In so doing, the authority is promoting competition among licensees and providing value for money for consumers.”

The new rates were in draft form and were published in the Government Gazette on 5 Spetember.