Mobile Operators to Cut Rates

Communications Minister, Siphiwe Nyanda, has secured a saving for consumers from cellphone operators, which have agreed to an initial 36 cents cut in the peak mobile termination rate, from R1, 25 to 89 cents a minute.

Vodacom and Cell C will implement the cut from February and MTN on 1 March 2010, but all have agreed to introduce new, affordable retail products based on reduced rates from December 1.

In the same vein, the African National Congress chairperson of the communications committee, Ismail Vadi, says the minister achieved in four months what the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa had failed to achieve in four years.

“For the first time in almost a decade there is today a tangible and positive reaction by industry to government’s call for a reduction in telecommunication costs,” says Vadi.

To read the article titled, “Nyanda’s early Xmas for cellphone users,” click here.