{"id":99706,"date":"2014-03-31T18:08:13","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T16:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=99706"},"modified":"2014-04-01T09:19:54","modified_gmt":"2014-04-01T07:19:54","slug":"termination-rate-ruling-not-a-win-but-a-good-start-cell-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/99706-termination-rate-ruling-not-a-win-but-a-good-start-cell-c.html","title":{"rendered":"Termination rate ruling not a win, but a good start: Cell C"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cell C<\/a> said in a press statement on Monday, 31 March 2014 that it believes the ruling made by Judge Mayat on South Africa\u2019s new call termination regulations is a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n

The operator described it as \u201cpositive for the consumer and the South African economy as a whole\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa<\/a>) issued the new call termination regulations towards the end of January 2014, dropping mobile termination rates (MTRs) and affording Cell C and Telkom a higher level of asymmetry.<\/p>\n

MTRs are the fees mobile network operators pay each other to connect calls on their respective networks.<\/p>\n

The asymmetric rates granted to Cell C and Telkom Mobile<\/a> allowed the two smaller networks to charge Vodacom<\/a> and MTN<\/a> more to connect calls to their networks than the larger networks could charge them.<\/p>\n

Mayat ruled on Monday that Icasa\u2019s regulations were unlawful and invalid, but suspended the declaration of invalidity for 6 months.<\/p>\n

During these 6 months, Icasa\u2019s first round of rate cuts, which were meant to run for 12 months, will be implemented.<\/p>\n

MTRs will be dropped to 20c per minute, while Cell C and Telkom Mobile will get an asymmetric rate of 44c\/minute.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, Vodacom and MTN have managed to frustrate the long-term process envisaged by Icasa to increase competition in the market, which would have resulted in lower prices for consumers in the long run,\u201d Cell C said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe uncertainty over MTRs over the next three years will continue to make it difficult for smaller operators to confirm their business plans beyond October 2014,\u201d the operator added.<\/p>\n

According to Cell C, it also negatively impacts on the smaller operators\u2019 ability to bring down prices.<\/p>\n

Cell C said that it will continue to cooperate with Icasa so that \u201cit can fulfil its mandate to regulate effectively to increase sustainable competition in the telecommunications sector\u201d.<\/p>\n

This will ultimately reduce the cost to communicate in South Africa, Cell C said, which will benefit consumers and the economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe trust that Vodacom and MTN will do the same,\u201d Cell C said.<\/p>\n

More termination rate battle articles<\/h3>\n

Termination rate ruling welcome: Telkom<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Hollow victory for MTN, Vodacom in termination battle<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Vodacom, MTN win one battle in MTR war<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

What Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, Telkom really mean<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cell C has said that Vodacom and MTN have successfully \u201cfrustrated\u201d Icasa\u2019s long-term process<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":74539,"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":[14],"tags":[36,23467,23671,355,18090,18272],"class_list":["post-99706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-active","tag-call-termination-rates-ctr","tag-call-termination-regulations-2014","tag-cell-c","tag-independent-communications-authority-of-south-africa-icasa","tag-mobile-termination-rates-mtr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99706"}],"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=99706"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99738,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99706\/revisions\/99738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}