In a number of questions posed to the Competition Commission, one member of the committee asked: “Do you think Icasa has the capacity and expertise (in its capacity as a regulator)?”<\/p>\n
“Icasa has not delivered as quickly as it ought to. Don’t strip Icasa of its role, but encourage it to make that constitution work properly, as it should,” a spokesperson for the commission retorted.<\/p>\n
Questions have been raised about Icasa dragging its heels over requests to reduce interconnection rates.<\/p>\n
The committee accused the Competition Commission of being one-sided, taking the role of defending operators, and not taking into account the fact that many South Africans were extremely poor and could not afford the high tariffs.<\/p>\n
The committee has proposed to reduce the interconnection rate from 1.25 rand to 60 cents with effect from November 1 and by a further 15 cents every November until 2012.<\/p>\n
“My fear is that the figure is not too low, but that it is too high,” said a spokesperson for the commission. He stressed that the figure would then not come down any further because the incorrect figure had been arrived at in the first place.<\/p>\n