Mobile interconnect rate mess

[rpm]

Mobile termination rate mess

Who is to blame, and will consumers benefit from ICASA’s decision to not accept the proposal from the mobile operators?

 

[Fantastic1]

Icasa Must be Congratulated on this by not playing "Ya-Baas" to the Cellular operators. The cellular operators placing pre-conditions are a norm of their practices. This is anti-competitive and the Competition Commission should seriously look into this. Vodacom stated that by cutting 10% on the rate they could loose R 200 million. How much money (BILLIONS) have they made in Profit from the consumers each year. Icasa cost based option for voice calls is the Best way forward for every person in South Africa.

 

[Shake&Bake]

Icasa Must be Congratulated on this by not playing "Ya-Baas" to the Cellular operators. The cellular operators placing pre-conditions are a norm of their practices. This is anti-competitive and the Competition Commission should seriously look into this. Vodacom stated that by cutting 10% on the rate they could loose R 200 million. How much money (BILLIONS) have they made in Profit from the consumers each year. Icasa cost based option for voice calls is the Best way forward for every person in South Africa.

+1

 

[Creag]

Icasa Must be Congratulated on this by not playing "Ya-Baas" to the Cellular operators. The cellular operators placing pre-conditions are a norm of their practices. This is anti-competitive and the Competition Commission should seriously look into this. Vodacom stated that by cutting 10% on the rate they could loose R 200 million. How much money (BILLIONS) have they made in Profit from the consumers each year. Icasa cost based option for voice calls is the Best way forward for every person in South Africa.

+2

 

[markings]

Is there any impediment for any cellular operators to cut rates themselves, now, without any preconditions and without ICASA approval?
Does ICASA have to approve a price reduction? That would be anti-competitive!

 

[Alastairo]

Collusion

Icasa Must be Congratulated on this by not playing "Ya-Baas" to the Cellular operators. The cellular operators placing pre-conditions are a norm of their practices. This is anti-competitive and the Competition Commission should seriously look into this. Vodacom stated that by cutting 10% on the rate they could loose R 200 million. How much money (BILLIONS) have they made in Profit from the consumers each year. Icasa cost based option for voice calls is the Best way forward for every person in South Africa.

This is blatant collusion by the big 3 and I suggest that a case be opened be opened by the competition commissioner. It is much more than Icasa having the balls - it is the government as a whole.
The big 3 want to keep their ill gotten money stream going, but should realise that it is wrong and back off to acceptable levels.

 

[Johnfpro]

Is there any impediment for any cellular operators to cut rates themselves, now, without any preconditions and without ICASA approval?
Does ICASA have to approve a price reduction? That would be anti-competitive!

I agree. There is absolutely nothing to stop them cutting their rates other than shareholders and others with vested interests.

The other part that confuses me is how can they (cell phone companies) produce a collective agreement without there being collusion?

 

[SaiyanZ]

Maybe Vodacom, MTN and CellC are just ineffecient companies with high costs of running a service and they will never be able to offer us cheaper calls as other african countries. It is either that or pure greed. There is no other reason for them to keep interconnect rates higher than that in other countries. So ICASA should just drop the rates and let more efficient companies enter the market. The celllphone giants will then be scrambling around looking for ways to cut costs and save themselves.

 

[Juice]

Icasa Must be Congratulated on this by not playing "Ya-Baas" to the Cellular operators. The cellular operators placing pre-conditions are a norm of their practices. This is anti-competitive and the Competition Commission should seriously look into this. Vodacom stated that by cutting 10% on the rate they could loose R 200 million. How much money (BILLIONS) have they made in Profit from the consumers each year. Icasa cost based option for voice calls is the Best way forward for every person in South Africa.

Funny how everyone wants to congrtulate ICASA for suddenly growing a spine, when they are largely to blame for the mess the industry is in to start with. Instead of congratulating them, I'd rather say: "It's about fricking time that you grew a spine and fixed what you f***ed up." Let's just hope it's not too little too late.

Juice

 

[goselito]

One of the biggest reasons we are we we are is because as South Africans we just accept things the way they are. ICASA should simply start revoking licenses, but they don't because we as the public just accept that this is our fate and until somebody (ICASA or a higher power) step in and do something about it we are happy to accept it and simply vent about it.

I predict that sometime in the future, once we as the public has had enough, the public will start boikotting bully companies, however this statement in itself is false as most of these big bully companies supply services without which we cannot conduct business in a productive way. The only way these companies will start listning is when we hurt them where it counts ... Their pockets

 

[DXL]

I agree

One of the biggest reasons we are we we are is because as South Africans we just accept things the way they are. ICASA should simply start revoking licenses, but they don't because we as the public just accept that this is our fate and until somebody (ICASA or a higher power) step in and do something about it we are happy to accept it and simply vent about it.

I predict that sometime in the future, once we as the public has had enough, the public will start boikotting bully companies, however this statement in itself is false as most of these big bully companies supply services without which we cannot conduct business in a productive way. The only way these companies will start listning is when we hurt them where it counts ... Their pockets

Yes South Africans are known to accept things as they are presented to them without questioning , who , why howcome , why not , No it don't accept - Its time guys.

We South African's have been ripped off for 16 Years. Waiting 3 Extra months is certainly not going to make us any poorer.

Icasa must forge ahead with the process and not consult with the mobile operators.

It's time to lay down the LAW.

Mobile Operators must make their profits from calls that people make from their network. Their own customers.

No Country in the World allows mobile operators to make huge profits of other networks customers.

Lets look at a current example in SA.

Cell-C offers R1-50 per minute anytime to any network.

A Cell-C customer makes a call to VodaCom - Vodacom gets R1-25 and Cell-C gets 25c - Peak Time
A Cell-C customer makes a call to VodaCom - Vodacom gets R0-77 and Cell-C gets 73c - Off -Peak Time

Anyone see a problem with the above equation.

31 March 2010 - 89c per minute - Peak - 49c OFF peak

31 March 2011 - 59c per minute - Peak - 39c OFF peak

31 March 2012 - 39c per minute - Peak - 29c OFF peak

31 March 2013 - 31.5c per minute - Peak - 19c OFF peak


Icasa must make Vodacom - MTN - Cell-C work for their Bacon - The Free money thingy is over.

I have repeatedly asked ICASA to copy and paste TRAI - Model here in SA.


http://www.trai.gov.in/Default.asp


DXL - Team

 

[Vlad]

Icasa Must be Congratulated on this by not playing "Ya-Baas" to the Cellular operators. The cellular operators placing pre-conditions are a norm of their practices. This is anti-competitive and the Competition Commission should seriously look into this. Vodacom stated that by cutting 10% on the rate they could loose R 200 million. How much money (BILLIONS) have they made in Profit from the consumers each year. Icasa cost based option for voice calls is the Best way forward for every person in South Africa.

+1

 

[TommyAtkins]

Vodacom, MTN and Cell C proposed an initial peak mobile termination rate cut from R1.25 to 89c in March, followed by a reduction to 85c in October 2011 and a further reduction to 80c in October 2012.

MTN, Vodacom and Cell C indicated that they are keen to reduce interconnect rates in March, but fingered regulatory hurdles as a stumbling block which may prevent them from achieving the deadline.

So, when they proposed their own scheme, it was all set for reductions in March. But when ICASA did not accept the proposal, all of a sudden there are "regulatory hurdles"?

 

[Rinkhals]

Icasa Must be Congratulated on this by not playing "Ya-Baas" to the Cellular operators. The cellular operators placing pre-conditions are a norm of their practices. This is anti-competitive and the Competition Commission should seriously look into this. Vodacom stated that by cutting 10% on the rate they could loose R 200 million. How much money (BILLIONS) have they made in Profit from the consumers each year. Icasa cost based option for voice calls is the Best way forward for every person in South Africa.

To what extent is the new-found backbone in ICASA due to the distancing of Telkom from Vodacom?

If Telkom still had a finger in the mobile operator's pie, would ICASA have been this brave?

 

[longboy]

Hopefully this will all get sorted out soon, then we can see pricing on par with the rest of the world here in South Africa...