The announcement follows a recent report by South Africa’s Department of Communications, stipulating that the three mobile network providers in the country will lose significant revenue once the new peak interconnection rates are implemented next month, while Telkom will save R1 billion annually from this move.
Telkom will drop its peak rate for fixed-to-mobile calls by 36 cents, resulting in Telkom customers now paying R1.475 per minute for conventional calls, as opposed to R1.886 in 2009 (VAT inclusive rates), from 1 March 2010.
“This will translate to a reduction of approximately 22% in fixed-to-mobile call charges for customers”, said Nombulelo Moholi, MD for Telkom South Africa.
The operator has filed its new fixed-to-mobile retail rates with the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) and is awaiting approval for its proposed fixed-to-mobile rate.
Meanwhile, the South African operator is looking to finalize an amendment to the Cell C Interconnection Agreement, awaiting notification from the Cell C carrier.
In January, Vodacom, Cell C and MTN agreed to reduce their interconnection rates amid complaints over the years that interconnection and call charges in South Africa were inflated and among the highest in the region.
Last week, MTN South Africa announced that it had finalized separate amended interconnection agreements with Vodacom and Cell C regarding the implementation of the Mobile Termination Rate (MTR) decrease, saying the rate would drop from the current R1.25 to 89c per minute.
