Telkom lowers tariffs

On June 5, Telkom filed price adjustments with the Independent Communication Authority of South Africa (ICASA), which were subsequently approved.

Steven Hayward, Telkom's Managing Executive for Retail Marketing, said that although the net impact of the proposed prices will vary among customers, mainly due to the types of services they use, the overall effect will be a reduction in the cost of telecommunications in South Africa.

He added: "If one considers inflationary pressures, in real terms there is a price drop of 5.6%. This indicates Telkom's ongoing commitment to providing affordable access to telephony for all our customers."

Main beneficiaries of Telkom's proposed price changes will be ADSL users who will enjoy a reduction in rentals of up to 32%. The average decrease in ADSL rentals is 24%.

There are also reductions of up to 20% in the monthly rental for residential ISDN services, a decrease of up to 39% in the rates for IPLC's (International Private Leased Circuits) as well as significant cuts in long distance and international call charges.

Local call charges remain unchanged at 59.4c, with the per minute rates being 38c and 16c for Standard and Callmore Time respectively.

Callmore Time for national calls are from 19h00 to 07h00 (Monday to Friday) and from 19h00 on a Friday to 7h00 on Monday morning.

The price of long distance calls have been reduced by 10%. Long distance calls will now cost 72c per minute during Standard Time and 36c per minute during Callmore Time. The minimum charge for long distance calls has also dropped by 10% (8c) to 72c.

There is also a 9.9% reduction in the average price per minute of international calls.