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May 24 2012 17:31
The Reserve Bank will maintain current interest rates, and a sizeable reduction in the local petrol price is expected, says governor Gill Marcus.
May 24 2012 15:29
The Reserve Bank will maintain current interest rates, says governor Gill Marcus.
May 23 2012 22:00
Economic liberation or the lack thereof is the most divisive issue in the country, according to a survey.
Cape Town - Plans by telecommunications giants and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) to reach an agreement on interconnection tariffs by December could be brought forward by parliamentary intervention.
On Tuesday the portfolio committee decided to hold public hearings on the issue on October 13 and 14.
In particular, the committee wants telecommunications players, and especially operators, to explain at the hearings why tariffs cannot be reduced to 60c from November 1.
The current interconnection tariff is R1.25-odd.
This is the tariff that operators pay each other to carry calls back and forth across the different networks.
The committee further proposes that interconnection tariffs be reduced by 15c every year until 2012.
This proposal should also be implemented from November 1.
The industry had initially agreed that Icasa would oversee the process in which Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, Telkom, Neotel and Ispa, the Internet Service Providers' Association, would negotiate on reducing the tariffs.
Icasa proposes that a new tariff framework be put into operation in February.
Vodacom's regulatory officer, Nkateko Nyoka, told Sake24 his company supported the committee's proposal to hold public hearings so that the operators could present their side of the matter.
But he added that if Icasa had executed its task better such public hearings would not have been necessary.
For years government has been speaking about a reduction in telecommunications costs.
The Department of Communication's survey of South Africa's standing with regard to tariffs relative to other countries is complete. According to the department, South Africa's telecommunication costs are amongst world's most expensive.
The committee described the current situation as "silent collusion" within the industry, although the Competition Commission does not regard it as collusion.
The committee also decided that it is prepared to table a Bill amending the Electronic Communications Act (36 of 2005) during the next session of parliament.
Committee chairperson Ismail Vadi said that from the increase in interconnection tariffs (from 25c in 2001 to the current R1.25c) it was clear that the regulator, Icasa, "had turned a blind eye" and failed to act.
- Sake24.com
For more business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.