We have a large panel for this week’s episode of SA’s favourite technology podcast. Duncan, Jon, Brett, Ben, Toby and Simon discuss Rica, Telkom cable upgrades, the interconnection debate, the Amazon Kindle, Google Wave, and much more
Cell C has proposed to parliament that mobile interconnection rates — the fees the operators charge to carry calls on their networks — be reduced as soon as possible to a flat 75c/minute charge, day and night. Lars Reichelt, Cell C CEO, says the company would like to see off-peak interconnect drop from 77c/minute to [...]
Cellphone operator MTN joined its rival Vodacom on Wednesday in committing to a closed-door session with the national assembly’s communications committee to discuss its cost structures. MTN MD Karel Pienaar, pictured, made the commitment in writing to committee chairman Ismail Vadi during the committee’s public hearings on what it says is the excessive and exorbitant [...]
Cellphone users should see the first cost cuts by the end of November, the communications department said on Sunday. Spokesman Tiyani Rikhotso confirmed reports that the department wanted to see interconnection rates, which cellphone operators pay each other for switching a call between networks, to drop by 30c, from R1,25 to 95c by the end [...]
Newly appointed communications director-general Mamodupi Mohlala says government wants mobile operators to reduce prepaid tariffs by passing on a planned reduction in interconnection fees to consumers. At the same time, Mohlala says her department is working hard to push through an amendment to the Electronic Communications Act to make it easier for the Independent Communications [...]
A flurry of initiatives aimed at achieving a reduction in mobile termination rates will provide interesting sidesdows, but beneath the politics of the moment, the real action remains an intimate dance between the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) and the mobile networks. The initial mobile termination rate, also known as interconnection rate, of 20c/minute was set between Vodacom and MTN on 8 August 1994. This was amended on 28 May 1999, shortly after it was announced by government that a third mobile cellular telecommunications licence would be issued.
A gathering of three forms the panel this week as Brett Haggard, Ben Kelly and Simon Dingle discuss, among other things, Halo 3: ODST, new iPods and pricing, interconnection rates, Twitter’s avatar evacuation and Facebook Lite
Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys said the cellular group was “not opposed” to lower interconnection rates provided they were set based on the demonstrable cost of carrying another operator’s call, plus a fair profit. “The only issue is how this should be done,” Uys said in a statement. “In the first place, mobile interconnection rates cannot [...]
The ZA Tech Show covers a remarkable variety of topics this week with regulars Brett Haggard, Toby Shapshak, Jon Tullett, Duncan McLeod, Simon Dingle and Candice Jones. In between, McLeod, Haggard, Tullett, show regular, Brainstorm editor Samantha Perry, and occasional guest, Talk Radio 702′s Aki Anastasiou, ventured north of the Boerewors Curtain to watch the [...]
AltX-listed Huge Group has hit back at recent claims that a dramatic reduction in mobile interconnection fees will destroy the business model for companies that provide least-cost routing (LCR) services. James Herbst, CEO of Huge Group, a big player in SA’s LCR industry, says the impact of a reduction in interconnection fees charged by mobile [...]
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