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Cape Town - Vodacom [JSE:VOD] has confirmed to Fin24 that it is challenging regulator Icasa in court over cheaper call rates.
Executive head of media relations Richard Boorman said that the firm filed papers in South Gauteng High Court on Tuesday.
He said the inadequate consultation with the communications regulator left the company with no choice but to approach the courts.
"Vodacom supports lower mobile termination rates. The issue at hand is not whether these rates come down; it’s about ensuring that the legislated fair and objective process is used to determine the final rates.
"Icasa has not followed this process and as a result our customers will be unfairly prejudiced," Boorman said in a brief emailed statement.
"We would have far preferred to have settled this in direct discussion with the regulator, but given the inadequate consultation we have been left with no choice but to approach the courts."
It reiterated a call that an interim cut be implemented immediately.
"This will ensure that rates continue to come down and at the same time provide breathing room to follow the correct, legislated process to determine the final rates."
Icasa published regulations which include a 50% cut in Mobile Termination Rates (MTRs) with effect from March 1 2014. However, the regulator said in a statement that this has been delayed to May 1 2014.
It said the postponement was a result of the court challenge by MTN [JSE:MTN]. It is seeking an urgent interim order to stop the MTRs from coming into effect until the legal process has been fully exhausted.
Call rates
MTRs are the fees that operators charge each other to carry calls between their networks.
Icasa wants mobile termination rates to be cut from the 40 cents to 20 cents.
For fixed lines, call rates will drop to 12c for short-distance calls and 16c for long-distance calls.
In addition, Icasa has also introduced an asymmetric system in a bid to help smaller operators grow.
This means bigger operators would pay 44c a minute to carry calls to smaller operators, while smaller operators would pay 20c a minute to their bigger rivals.
- Fin24
Executive head of media relations Richard Boorman said that the firm filed papers in South Gauteng High Court on Tuesday.
He said the inadequate consultation with the communications regulator left the company with no choice but to approach the courts.
"Vodacom supports lower mobile termination rates. The issue at hand is not whether these rates come down; it’s about ensuring that the legislated fair and objective process is used to determine the final rates.
"Icasa has not followed this process and as a result our customers will be unfairly prejudiced," Boorman said in a brief emailed statement.
"We would have far preferred to have settled this in direct discussion with the regulator, but given the inadequate consultation we have been left with no choice but to approach the courts."
It reiterated a call that an interim cut be implemented immediately.
"This will ensure that rates continue to come down and at the same time provide breathing room to follow the correct, legislated process to determine the final rates."
Icasa published regulations which include a 50% cut in Mobile Termination Rates (MTRs) with effect from March 1 2014. However, the regulator said in a statement that this has been delayed to May 1 2014.
It said the postponement was a result of the court challenge by MTN [JSE:MTN]. It is seeking an urgent interim order to stop the MTRs from coming into effect until the legal process has been fully exhausted.
Call rates
MTRs are the fees that operators charge each other to carry calls between their networks.
Icasa wants mobile termination rates to be cut from the 40 cents to 20 cents.
For fixed lines, call rates will drop to 12c for short-distance calls and 16c for long-distance calls.
In addition, Icasa has also introduced an asymmetric system in a bid to help smaller operators grow.
This means bigger operators would pay 44c a minute to carry calls to smaller operators, while smaller operators would pay 20c a minute to their bigger rivals.
- Fin24
