{"id":47264,"date":"2013-10-07T17:45:35","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T15:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=47264"},"modified":"2013-10-08T10:00:37","modified_gmt":"2013-10-08T08:00:37","slug":"vodacom-bemoans-asymmetry-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/47264\/vodacom-bemoans-asymmetry-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Vodacom bemoans asymmetry plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vodacom Group<\/a> CEO, Shameel Joosub<\/a>\u00a0says that Icasa\u2019s proposed asymmetry in mobile termination rates between large and small cellular operators would mean that it would\u00a0effectively\u00a0subsidize\u00a0its competitors.<\/p>\n

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa<\/a>)\u00a0announced on Friday, 4 October 2013, that it wants to cut the costs of terminating a call on a mobile network to R0.10 over the next 3 years.<\/p>\n

Under the proposed regulations, smaller operators such as Cell C<\/a> and Telkom Mobile<\/a> will be afforded preferential termination rates for 6 years, after which their rates will also be R0.10.<\/p>\n

Shares in Vodacom tanked on the JSE on Monday (7 October), sliding 6.26% or R7.74, to R116 at close.<\/p>\n

In a written statement,\u00a0Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO said that the initial drop in termination rates from 40c\/minute to 20c\/minute was to steep, and could have a\u00a0profound impact on the operator’s business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe support Icasa\u2019s goal of reducing mobile termination rates, provided that such a reduction is cost-based. Cuts in mobile termination rates can have a profound impact on both our business and those of our suppliers, franchisees and other stakeholders. We therefore support a managed \u2018glide path\u2019 of reductions over several years.”<\/p>\n

“We will be responding to Icasa to make the case that the proposed reduction and glide path, which has an initial drop of 50% in March 2014, are too steep and could have serious negative impacts.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Asymmetry\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The second part of the proposed changes involves an increase in asymmetry. This change, Vodacom said, would mean it pays more to connect a voice call to someone on Cell C or Telkom Mobile than these networks pay to connect to someone using Vodacom.<\/p>\n

“The proposed changes take the current rate of asymmetry from a 10% differential to rates ranging between 95% and 160% over three years. The accepted practice worldwide is declining asymmetry for a limited period for new entrants at a fraction of the levels proposed.<\/p>\n

“We intend to engage with Icasa on this point to motivate for a more reasonable outcome. We see this proposed asymmetry as placing Vodacom (and by extension, our customers) in the position of effectively subsidising our competitors,”\u00a0Joosub said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

More on Icasa and MTRs<\/h3>\n

Operators mull action on termination rate cuts<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

We are winning: Cell C<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

MTN, Vodacom freefall on MTR cuts<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Icasa announces new draft call regulations<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

New call termination rates coming<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

New Icasa Cost to Communicate timelines<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vodacom says that Icasa\u2019s proposed asymmetry in mobile termination rates between large and small cellular operators would mean that it would effectively subsidize its competitors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":23257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[26,36,3403,27],"class_list":["post-47264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-headline","tag-icasa","tag-shameel-joosub","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47264"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47295,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47264\/revisions\/47295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}