{"id":551004,"date":"2006-12-04T22:25:36","date_gmt":"2006-12-04T22:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/551004-you-ve-been-voiped.html"},"modified":"2006-12-04T22:25:36","modified_gmt":"2006-12-04T22:25:36","slug":"you-ve-been-voiped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/551004-you-ve-been-voiped.html","title":{"rendered":"You’ve been Voiped!"},"content":{"rendered":"

This dual pricing system would allow the cellular operators to charge one price for normal data traffic, such as email, browsing and downloading, and then bill traffic that was identified as voice-over internet protocol (Voip), for example international calls made via Skype, at a rate that is 10 times the standard data tariff.<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

Vodacom charges R1,50 per megabyte and MTN charges R2 per megabyte for normal data traffic, but they reserve the right to charge R10 and R25 respectively per megabyte for Voip traffic.<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

Vodacom and MTN claim to have submitted specific Voip tariffs almost two years ago, which were approved by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa).<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

However, Icasa says this is not the case. \u201cIcasa, as a regulatory body, has never permitted any practice that could give rise to discriminatory or dual pricing,\u201d said Icasa spokesperson Jubie Matlou. \u201cAccording to our records there is no approval of that nature.\u201d<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

The competition manager for Icasa, Nomvuyiso Batyi, says the rates in question specifically state that they do not include Voip. \u201cIt\u2019s in black and white,\u201d says Batyi. \u201cIt excludes Voip.\u201d<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

MTN\u2019s senior manager of data services, Brian Seligmann, disputes Icasa\u2019s view claiming that the Voip tariffs were lodged and approved in June last year. \u201cThe information they have given you is incorrect,\u201d says Seligmann.<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

Seligmann says MTN does have the technical capability to block Voip calls and charge them at the higher rate, but had not done so as yet. He says the rate was a precautionary measure to prevent the MTN network being swamped with Voip data, which would lower the quality of service.<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not about propping up the rate artificially, it\u2019s not about blocking Voip,\u201d says Seligmann. \u201cWe see Voip as a tremendous opportunity, not a threat. It will allow us to offer different levels of service to customers according to their needs, but it has to be done in a managed way.\u201d<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

Vodacom spokesperson Dot Field says that Icasa approved Vodacom\u2019s Voip tariffs almost two years ago, but that they had never been charged.<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

\u201cCustomers can download and use Voip clients such as Skype but will experience the typical \u2018bursty\u2019 nature of the internet leading to poor voice quality, and could be charged mobile Voip tariffs,\u201d says Field.<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

World Wide Worx\u2019s Arthur Goldstuck says the cellular operators are using the high tariffs to discourage people from using Voip, but the end result will be that they chase people from their cellular broadband offering to fixed-line broadband.<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very short-term thinking and it is very anti-consumer thinking,\u201d says Goldstuck.<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

Rudolph Muller from consumer activist group MyADSL, says the high tariffs are just a safeguard to protect against new phones that may be Voip-enabled.<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

David Gale, director of business development for telecoms operator Storm, says these Voip rates were driven by fear, uncertainty and doubt about the impact of internet tele\u00adphony. He says he would like to see cellphone operators embracing Voip.<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

Discuss this article<\/a>
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Mail & Guardian<\/em>
\n <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A dual pricing system, which South African cellphone operators have threatened to use to protect themselves against cannibalisation of voice revenue, has not been sanctioned by the communications regulator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-551004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551004"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551004\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}