Johannesburg,(IT News Africa)-The Democratic Alliance (DA) has joined other political parties in calling for immediate reduction of interconnection rates by South African cellphone operators.
The official opposition said that it was “equally as concerned” as the Independent Democrats (ID) about the excessive interconnection rates the South African consumers have to pay, and has accused the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) for not handling the matter of lowering the rates as a matter of urgency.
ICASA has previously stated that it is still following the lengthy investigative process set out in Section 67 of the Electronic Communications Act (ECA), its empowering legislation, using the “moral suasion” approach.
The authority said it was carrying out “further investigations” to determine how call costs could be reduced at wholesale level.
“ICASA cannot use ‘moral suasion’ as a negotiating tool and step around the issue. They need to be tough on cellphone operators that are co-operating to charge the South African taxpayer higher fees than they should be paying,” said DA shadow minister of Home Affairs, Niekie van den Berg.
“The lowering on interconnection fees will have beneficial effects not only for the consumer but also for the economy.
“This will encourage further competitiveness in the sector by allowing other cellphone providers to enter into the sector without having to pay excessively high costs for interconnection at wholesale level,” Van den Berg said.
Recently, ID leader Patricia de Lille slammed cellphone operators for “a double rip-off” after Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda confirmed that Telkom was paying around six times more in interconnection rates to cellphone companies than it was receiving from them.-
By Mpendulo Ngwenya
