Cellular price cuts needed, says experts

Wow... what does it take to become one of these "experts"? :D

Oxygen assists in breathing, say experts! :p
 
With Vodacom bleating and squealing about lost profits I think this is nigh impossible. As I have said before, the cellular companies have become so used to the milk and honey of the the interconnect fees, it is entrenched in their balance sheet and they will never willingly give it away without a fight. Backs to the wall stuff. Never Gonna Give It Up!
 
I feel like I wasted my time reading that.

So, the point of that article is that ICASA must make up their minds and implement a ruling, and then the operators must meet the requirements, and the we (customers) will possibly reap the benefits perhaps dunno hey could be ...

But, if you look closely at what is really being said, in the shadows there lurks an evil reality: The extremely profitable "for profit" companies are bearing fat grinz, paying immense and ludicrous sums of money to people tasked with no other responsibility than to keep the cash rolling in. And, in the meanwhile, ICASA is incapable of policing the issues they are currently tasked to govern, with their hands tied firmly behind their backs by legislation that is as clear as a bright summers day in a sandstorm.

Now we get to watch them play with each other; ICASA with no teeth, and the Cellular operators, with so much financial muscle that they make the meme version of Chuck Norris look like a swab of wet tissue paper.

I mean, really, are we as consumers actually supposed to take this charade seriously?
WTF Parliament?
 
Sackstein said that prices from the mobile operators have not decreased as expected after the March mobile termination rate cuts, and apart from some ‘window dressing’ from Vodacom, MTN and Cell C no significant price changes have been seen
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:confused:It is amazing that a so called expert can expect a reduction in prices from the March mobile termination rate cuts when all the operators net costs increased as a result of these cuts. The only telecoms providers who benefited were the fixed line and voip operators.
 
mikef said:
:confused:It is amazing that a so called expert can expect a reduction in prices from the March mobile termination rate cuts when all the operators net costs increased as a result of these cuts. The only telecoms providers who benefited were the fixed line and voip operators.
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I was lead to believe that calls from Vodacom terminating in MTN were now terminating cheaper than before.
I was mislead?
 
davemc said:
I was lead to believe that calls from Vodacom terminating in MTN were now terminating cheaper than before.
I was mislead?
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You forget that it cuts both ways and that calls from MTN terminating in Vodacom are also terminated cheaper than before (Remember the so called "Zero Sum Game").

Please note I said "net costs" increased - this is due the the smaller difference between mobile terminating rates and fixed line terminating rates.
 
How are they making less money if calls cost the same per minute as they did before March? Say it use to be R2.50 per min (R1.29 interconnect, R1.21 markup) now R2.50 (R0.89 interconnect, R1.61 markup) or am I missing something :s
 
alt21 said:
How are they making less money if calls cost the same per minute as they did before March? Say it use to be R2.50 per min (R1.29 interconnect, R1.21 markup) now R2.50 (R0.89 interconnect, R1.61 markup) or am I missing something :s
Click to expand...

A valid point.

As I have said on this forum before, if profits were going to be materially affected by the rate cuts, we would have had announcements to this effect to advise existing shareholders and potential new shareholders.

There was no "climb path" when they colluded to increase the inter connect rates. They just did it.

IMHO, unless they are instructed to drop the total cost of a call by a certain percentage of value, any other reductions will be countered elsewhere.
 
South Africans are use to getting SCREWED so live with it
 
I'm very worried by the trend I'm seeing these days... Gov put these parastatals, like Icasa(I***a), in place to regulate the industry... but yet the companies they are supposed to regulate just show them the middle finger without a care in the world... and what does/can Icasa do... nutting... absolutely nutting... they are a teethless and spineless... look at Telkom's response to the Competition Commission investigation into their 'anti-competitive' business practices... they said the CompComm has no jurisdiction to investigate/probe these irregular business practices/models... I wonder how the Telkom shareholder, Guavamint, is going to react? They win both ways... if Telkom is found guilty by CompComm they get the fine monies... else they continue to earn their shareholder dividends...
 
alt21 said:
How are they making less money if calls cost the same per minute as they did before March? Say it use to be R2.50 per min (R1.29 interconnect, R1.21 markup) now R2.50 (R0.89 interconnect, R1.61 markup) or am I missing something :s
Click to expand...

Interconnect is much more complex than above as you are only looking at a single call

See below for a link where I attempted to explain the "zero sum game"
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...call-tariffs&p=3250345&highlight=#post3250345


Johnfpro said:
A valid point.

As I have said on this forum before, if profits were going to be materially affected by the rate cuts, we would have had announcements to this effect to advise existing shareholders and potential new shareholders.

There was no "climb path" when they colluded to increase the inter connect rates. They just did it.

IMHO, unless they are instructed to drop the total cost of a call by a certain percentage of value, any other reductions will be countered elsewhere.
Click to expand...

Changes to the MTR either up or down do not materially affect profits as long as such rates are symmetrical. It would however change the relative dynamics of particular investment decision relating to the profitability of individual towers for example. However due to the fact that terminating rates between fixed line and mobile calls and vice versa are not symmetrical any change in the relationship between these rates will have an impact on profitability.
 
Call rates on prepaid have definitely come down. MTN's One rate costs R1.69 per minute (per second billing) to all networks any time.
Vodacom charges R1.70 per minute (per sec billing) to Vodacom and R1.80 to other networks on all day prepaid.
Cell C charges R1.50 on a similar deal but it's per minute only.

Cell C has however come to the party with regards to contract in their All Week 100 deals. A phone and 100 anytime minutes for R50 per month at Game.
 
For ONCE ... can they please just listen to the MARKET first and screw the bloody shareholders
 
mikef said:
You forget that it cuts both ways and that calls from MTN terminating in Vodacom are also terminated cheaper than before (Remember the so called "Zero Sum Game").

Please note I said "net costs" increased - this is due the the smaller difference between mobile terminating rates and fixed line terminating rates.
Click to expand...

Vodacom would have lost out the most on revenue as they have more net inbound calls. MTN would have a slight net loss as they would pay more to Vodacom but get less from Telkom. Cell C may lose out overall.

Subscribers are partly to blame for prices not coming down. Calls from fixed lines to mobiles are now cheaper relative to mobile-to-mobile and so customers should discrimate and favour calling from fixed to mobile. If they are lazy and don't discriminate, the mobile operators will simply retain the higher tariffs.
 
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