The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) would like to inform all stakeholders that it has not received any submissions from Vodacom, MTN and Cell C following its refusal to review the interconnection amendment agreement last week.
The proposed agreements sought to bind the authority to an undertaking not to review mobile termination rates until 1 March 2013. The authority rejected this pre-condition in total.
However, the authority welcomes any reductions on call termination rates or interconnection rates as long as there are no pre-conditions attached that seek to compromise the role and mandate of the authority as outlined in section 39 of the Electronic Communications Act.
As a result, the three mobile operators are welcome to revise and re-submit their interconnection agreements to the authority. However, this will not stop the authority from releasing draft regulations in March 2010.
The authority would also like to point out that there was no mention of the blended rate of 60 cents as suggested by Vodacom’s Chief Executive Officer, Pieter Uys, in an interview with the Sunday Times’ Business Times on 7 February 2010.
Contact:
Jubie Matlou
Cell: 082 376 0015
Issued by: Independent Communications Authority of South Africa
9 February 2010
Source: Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (http://www.icasa.org.za/)
