We are supportive of today’s announcement on mobile termination rates by ICASA and of the goal of providing better value to customers. The almost 30% reduction in mobile termination rates already implemented this year has had a major impact on Vodacom’s revenue and we have been working hard to introduce cost savings programmes to offset this impact and still be able to lower our call and data rates. The agreed glide path gives us time to adjust our business model in order to accommodate the significant further revenue reduction that will result from the changes announced today.
It’s important to emphasise that today’s announcement does not produce savings for Vodacom to pass on to customers. It does, however, foster competition which is in turn likely to lead to lower call charges.
We are currently studying the provisions with respect to asymmetry and will comment on this at a later stage.
