ICASA believes that the new call termination rate regulations will transition the market towards a more competitive environment as outlined by the Electronics Communications Act.
"The final regulations are the result of an extensive consultative process and include a number of amendments to the 2014 call termination regulations," said ICASA.
The new regulations revise wholesale voice call termination rates as follows.
For operators with more than a 20% share of total minutes terminated in the wholesale voice market, a glide path period:
Where a charge for terminating a call at a fixed location would be 9c from October 2018 to September 2019; 7c for the period October 2019 to September 2020; and 6c from October 2020 onwards.
Where a charge for terminating a call at a mobile location would be 12c from October 2018 to September 2019; 10c for the period October 2019 to September 2020; and 9c from October 2020 onwards.
For operators with 20% or less share of total minutes terminated in the wholesale voice market, a glide path period:
Where a charge for terminating a call at a fixed location would be 10c from October 2018 to September 2019; 8c for the period October 2019 to September 2020; 6c from October 2020 onwards.
Where a charge for terminating a call at a mobile location would be 18c from October 2018 to September 2019; 6c for the period October 2019 to September 2020; and 13c from October 2020 onwards.
These changes will come in to effect from 1 October 2018 and are aimed at reducing the cost to communicate, ICASA said.
Voice call termination is the service that one network offers another to carry voice traffic to its end-users. It is the charge for this service that has been the subject of concern where it has been viewed as a constraint to effective competition as well as a driver of high retail prices of telecommunications in South Africa.
