14 October 2009.
In what many consumers will view as long overdue,
The Department of Communications (DoC) has decided to reduce South African cell phone interconnection charges from the end of November 2009.
According to the
Mail and Guardian Online, SA cell phone providers will be forced to charge consumers less when they are wanting to make a call from one network to another (e.g. from Vodacom to MTN). Currently consumers are charged R1,25 per minute to connect between networks. This fee will drop by 30c to R0,95 hopefully by the end of November, and possibly more over the next year.
This decision stems from
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s (Icasa) call for cell phone providers to cut the amount which they are charging for cell phone calls, as the costs of our calls are amongst the highest in the world.
Tiyani Rikhotso, spokesperson for the DoC, states that Icasa needs to issue instructions to the network providers as to how much they need to cut their charges, and when this should be done by. However,
Eyewitness News reports that this process is a complicated one, and consumers may have to wait longer than expected to see the results.
