The battle between MTN and Telkom over interconnection fees has been postponed to Saturday.
The hearing called by the Independent Communications Authority of SA’s complaints and compliance committee was thrown into dissaray this morning when the two companies’ legal teams butted heads over an affidavit submitted by MTN.
The complaint, lodged by Telkom earlier in September, accuses MTN of slowing down the interconnection negotiation process in a bid to keep prices higher for longer.
Telkom, which is due to launch its own mobile network in the middle of next month, wants to charge MTN — and presumably other operators — 93c/minute to carry calls onto its new network.
The details of Telkom’s proposed interconnection fee were revealed at a hearing held earlier this month.
The fixed-line operator wants MTN to pay 93c to terminate calls on its new mobile network, arguing that any less would be unsustainable.
However, MTN is not happy about the idea and negotiations between the parties have broken down. Telkom took the matter to the complaints committee, hitting out at MTN for allegedly dragging its feet in the negotiation process.
However, MTN has fired a fresh salvo at Telkom, saying the latter’s request to charge 93c/minute for termination is unreasonable.
“The rate Telkom is asking for is unreasonable and will have an impact on MTN,” according to the cellular operator’s submission to the complaints committee.
Telkom is seeking a higher rate for termination than the fees charged by other mobile operators.
MTN, Vodacom and Cell C voluntarily reduced the peak-time interconnection rate to 89c/minute in March, from R1,25/minute previously.
Icasa is in the process of creating new regulations that could result in the operators being forced to cut the rates again, to 65c/minute, and eventually to 40c/minute, in both peak and off-peak times.
Speculation is that the regulations will be out before the end of October.
Telkom was never party to the mobile rate cut discussions that took place earlier this year, and was therefore not asked to comply with the prices.
If Telkom wins the current dispute, MTN will have to pay it 4c/minute more in peak times than Telkom will pay MTN for calls between their networks.
A lawyer representing MTN at Wednesday’s proceedings says there is no way to know if the 93c Telkom proposes to charge is based on costs and has called for the committee to give it more time to present evidence.
Over the past three weeks, Telkom and MTN have submitted evidence, in the form of affidavits, to the committee and a second hearing was supposed to take place today.
However, MTN has thrown another spanner in the works, by entering a fourth set of legal documents, which Telkom argues it has not had time to respond to.
The Icasa committee has asked Telkom to respond to the document by lunchtime on Friday, and the hearing will go ahead on Saturday morning. — Candice Jones, TechCentral
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