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The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) this week dismissed telecommunications giant MTN’s move to charge an interconnect fee of $0.25 or the relevant currency equivalent for all incoming international calls.
This emerged after Icasa received a complaint from members of the Internet Service Providers Association over an MTN-issued notice on October 22 regarding the charges for the termination fee effective November 1, 2014.
Other licencees had also requested regulatory clarity, as the 2010 Call Termination Regulations made no distinction between termination services for voice calls originating within and outside South Africa.
“By charging a different rate for termination between licensed operators in the manner that it has, MTN is in breach of the nondiscrimination principles as per Section 37 (6) of the Electronic Communications Act,” Icasa responded.
Further, any amendments to the interconnect agreements were required to be submitted to the authority, while the current terms of the interconnection agreements remained binding until there was mutual agreement between the relevant parties to amend them.
“The authority, therefore, directs MTN to immediately cease collection of the $0.25 from local interconnecting partners and to comply with the charging regime contained in the Call Termination Regulations, 2014, as reflected in the interconnection agreements,” the authority stated.