PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO: 1429
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 25 September 2009
QUESTION PAPER NO: 18
DATE OF REPLY: 7 October 2009
Ms L D Mazibuko (DA) to ask the Minister of Communications:
Whether any (a) regulations and (b) draft regulations relating to (i)
cellular phone tariffs and (ii) cellular phone call termination rates have
been gazetted by ICASA since its establishment in July 2000; if not, why
not; if so, (aa) how many and (bb) what are the further relevant details in
each case?
NW1787E
REPLY:
I was informed by ICASA as follows:
a) and (b)
(i) and (ii) No regulations or draft regulations with respect to
cellular phone tariffs or with respect to cellular phone call termination
rates have been gazetted by ICASA since its establishment in July 2000.
The reasons for this are as follows:
a) Cellular phone tariffs were regulated by Consumer Price Index (CPI),
i.e. in terms of the licence that cellular operators held, they were not
allowed to increase their tariffs by more than CPI year on year.
b) Call termination or interconnection fees were commercially negotiated
between operators. As of 2001, cellular operators were not allowed to
increase call termination rates by more than 2 cents or CPI.