TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      Where to next for Dimension Data

      5 July 2022

      Zapper is said to seek fundraising at huge valuation

      5 July 2022

      Stage-5 load shedding to continue until Thursday

      5 July 2022

      Big step forward for Cell C as debt deal approved

      5 July 2022

      Eskom unions accept 7% wage offer

      5 July 2022
    • World

      Bitcoin hints at a bottom – but it may be different this time

      5 July 2022

      China, US war of words erupts over lunar missions

      5 July 2022

      Tether fails to calm jittery nerves

      4 July 2022

      EU to impose wide-ranging new rules on the crypto industry

      3 July 2022

      Crypto hedge fund Three Arrows files for bankruptcy

      3 July 2022
    • In-depth

      The bonfire of the NFTs

      5 July 2022

      The NFT party is over

      30 June 2022

      The great crypto crash: the fallout, and what happens next

      22 June 2022

      Goodbye, Internet Explorer – you really won’t be missed

      19 June 2022

      Oracle’s database dominance threatened by rise of cloud-first rivals

      13 June 2022
    • Podcasts

      How your organisation can triage its information security risk

      22 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E06 – ‘Apple Silicon’

      15 June 2022

      The youth might just save us

      15 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E05 – ‘Nvidia: The Green Goblin’

      8 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E04 – ‘The story of Intel – part 2’

      1 June 2022
    • Opinion

      South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

      4 July 2022

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022

      Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

      13 June 2022

      A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

      19 May 2022

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»Podcasts»Interview: SwitchTel slams ‘perverse’ Icasa regulations

    Interview: SwitchTel slams ‘perverse’ Icasa regulations

    Podcasts By Duncan McLeod27 August 2018
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Gregory Massel

    Communications regulator Icasa has not thought through its proposed new call termination rate regulations and, if they’re implemented without significant changes, they will harm the industry and lead to higher prices for consumers.

    That’s the view of Switch Telecom CEO Greg Massel, who spoke to TechCentral in a podcast interview on Monday (listen to the discussion below).

    “The single biggest issue is that, either intentionally or unintentionally, they seem to steal from the poor and give to the rich,” he said. “It really could be devastating to a lot of the newer entrants to the market.”

    When the result of a rushed decision is that you come to a conclusion in terms of which the poor subsidise the wealthy, well that’s not only inexcusable, it’s actually perverse

    Massel said Icasa has proposed a “complete turnaround” in the strategy it followed between 2010 and 2016. “In 2010, there seemed to be an acknowledgement that there was some level of convergence between fixed and mobile technologies and between markets. Prior to 2010, the ratio of the mobile to the fixed termination rate was about 4.5 times. Over the space of eight years, it’s come down 1.3 times,” he said.

    “What we are seeing in this draft regulation is a complete reversal of that. The proposal is to go up from current levels back to the level of fixed-mobile subsidisation that we had in March 2010. That’s really backward. There’s no reason for the fixed market to be subsidising mobile, because the market dynamics have changed…”

    Massel described the draft regulations as being drawn up with “good intentions” but implemented badly.

    “The idea of regulating call termination tariffs and bringing them down towards cost as a pro-competitive remedy is fundamentally a good one and is to be welcomed, but it has to be done responsibly. There’s no short-cutting it and the indication here is that Icasa has tried to cut corners — and that’s where the harm is.”

    He encouraged Icasa not to implement the new regulations on 1 October as planned, but rather to delay them “by a few months”. Providing such a short period of time to implement the new regulations and consider inputs from the industry is “inexcusable”.

    “The draft regulations appear rushed and poorly thought out, and when the result of a rushed decision is that you come to a conclusion in terms of which the poor subsidise the wealthy, well that’s not only inexcusable, it’s actually perverse.”

    It’s a fascinating podcast about a very important issue. Don’t miss it!

    How to subscribe to TechCentral’s podcasts

    There are many ways to enjoy TechCentral’s podcasts, beyond simply streaming them from the website. The best way is by subscribing to them using an app on your phone, allowing you to listen in the car (via Bluetooth), at the gym or wherever you happen to be. Use the links below to subscribe.

    iTunes
    Pocket Casts
    TuneIn Radio
    Stitcher
    iono.fm
    RSS

    iTunes
    Pocket Casts
    TuneIn Radio
    Stitcher
    iono.fm

    RSS

    iTunes
    Pocket Casts
    TuneIn Radio
    Stitcher
    iono.fm
    RSS

    iTunes
    Pocket Casts
    TuneIn Radio
    Stitcher
    iono.fm
    RSS

    iTunes
    Pocket Casts
    TuneIn Radio
    Stitcher
    iono.fm
    RSS

    TechCentral podcasts are governed by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. This means you may copy and redistribute the material unmodified, but you must provide the appropriate credit to TechCentral, with a link to this page. We also ask that if you’d like to use this podcast on your website or in an electronic newsletter that you use iono.fm’s embedded player. The HTML for this episode’s embedded player is:

    <iframe src=”https://embed.iono.fm/epi/596643″ width=”100%” height=”135″ frameborder=”0″><a href=”https://iono.fm/e/596643″>Content hosted by iono.fm</a></iframe>

    Greg Massel Icasa SwitchTel TechCentral Podcast top
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleApple’s 2018 iPhone models: here’s what’s coming
    Next Article Toyota invests $500-million in Uber

    Related Posts

    Clear the regulatory fog, ISPs urge Icasa

    30 June 2022

    E.tv: ‘We know we must vacate broadband spectrum bands’

    29 June 2022

    Floods blamed as gov’t falls behind in set-top box roll-out

    24 June 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Hot Ink certifies and diversifies to maintain competitive printing edge

    5 July 2022

    Increased flexibility with Dell Precision Mobile Workstations

    5 July 2022

    The 5 secrets of customer experience in the cloud era

    5 July 2022
    Opinion

    South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

    4 July 2022

    Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

    21 June 2022

    Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

    13 June 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.