The most important public hearings to be held by SA’s telecommunications regulator in years kick off today (Monday) in Midrand, north of Johannesburg.

The hearings, on wholesale call termination rates, are set to be a legalistic battleground as top regulatory and legal experts from the incumbent operators fight tooth and nail to lessen the reduction in the rates proposed by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa).

The rates, which the operators charge each other to carry calls on their networks, are blamed for keeping the retail price of calls higher than they should be and for keeping competition from emerging.

The operators, which have already filed voluminous written submissions to Icasa, are expected to argue that the authority’s proposals are far too aggressive and will have a devastating impact on jobs in the sector if implemented. They’re also likely to argue that Icasa has adopted the wrong methodology in law in trying to reduce the rates.

But the authority, under intense political pressure to act on the rates, is not likely to be swayed easily by the operators’ arguments.

Icasa has proposed mobile call termination rates be reduced to 40c/minute in peak and off-peak periods by July 2012, from 89c/minute in peak times now. It will use a “glide path”, where the rates are also reduced in July 2010 and July 2011, to get there.

MTN, for one, has already warned of dire consequences, including widespread job losses, if Icasa goes through with its plan as it stands. And Telkom has strongly objected to a proposed sharp reduction in fixed-line termination rates, arguing that, if anything, the rates should be going up, not down.

Though the operators will be tempted to take Icasa to court to stop it implementing reduced termination rates, it seems unlikely they will do so. They’d face a public relations nightmare — not to be mention intense political scrutinisation — if they go to the courts to stop Icasa from forcing down the rates.

That leaves them with only one weapon: convincing Icasa not to reduce the rates as much as proposed and making the glide path longer than two years.

The hearings kick off at 10am at the Bytes Technology Centre in Midrand. Vodacom is presenting first, followed by the Internet Service Providers’ Association, Saicom, Neotel and Sentech. The hearings are scheduled to conclude on Wednesday. — Duncan McLeod, TechCentral