The latest opposition to having the mobile termination rates (MTR) lowered and the subsequent delay in implementation would allow South Africa’s two largest mobile service providers to enjoy favourable termination rates – at the expense of Telkom.

This, despite the fact that Telkom had, from 2001 until 2012, subsidised South Africa’s two largest mobile operators through asymmetry, Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko said on Friday.

Maseko was responding to MTN's move to take the Independent Communication Authority of South Africa (Icasa) to court over the imminent termination rate cuts, which resulted in the regulator delaying the implementation of the new three-year glide path by one month.

Nearly a month before the March 1 implementation of the new rates, MTN served an urgent application to have the gazetted termination rate execution suspended as the group moved to review and set aside the new glide path.

The final termination rates, which largely favoured the smaller players such as Cell C and Telkom Mobile, would see the rates charged to operators to carry calls between their networks halved to 20c this year, before declining to 15c in March 2015 and 10c by March 2016.

The asymmetry would be set at 44c, before declining to 42c in 2015, 40c in 2016 and 20c in 2017.

Initially R1.25 a minute in 2009, the MTR has gradually dropped to the current rate of 40c a minute.

Cell C acting CEO Jose Dos Santos this week explained that asymmetry “is a common remedy” to ensure that competition was possible, slamming MTN’s court application.

“Previous interventions have stimulated the industry to become more competitive as all players have moved to offer lower retail prices following these interventions,” Telkom added.

Maseko warned that any setback in the implementation of the glide path would not be in the public interest – but rather “detrimental” – as it delayed reducing the cost of communications to consumers.

Telkom pointed out that the savings from the lower MTRs over the past four years had been passed on to consumers.