It should not come as a suprise that the country that invented touchtone dialing offers world class telecommunications. Telecommunications is one of the fastest growing sectors of south Africa's economy, reflecting the rapid growth of mobile telephony in the country. The communication sector, together with transport and storage , accounts for all almost 10% of gross domestic product(GDP).
With a network that is 99.9% digital and includes the latest in fixed-line, wireless and satelite communication, the country has the most developed telecoms networks in Africa.
The fixed-line monopoly of Telcom, a listed company in which the governement is the largest shareholder, expired with the licensing of Neotel as South Africa's second national operator. Neotel is licensed to provide the entire range of telecoms services with exception of full mobility.
Department of Communications had commissioned a study to benchm ark South Africa communication costs again st our "peer countries". The study compared South Africa to Brazil, Chile, Korea, India and Malaysi, and found that our country has "exceptionally high telecommunications prices relative to its peer group countries" and South Africa has the "least competitive Market".
Renewed calls are being made for action to force Soouth Africa's cellphone service providers to cut their charges, some of which are said to be among the highest in the world.
The calls are becoming more strident and come at a time the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has launched a study of the cellphone industry and the cost involved.
The Icasa study has had mixed reception, as some experts close to the industry say it could take years to reach conclusions that benefit hard-pressed South Africans who will continue to face exorbitant communications costs.
They are demanding that something be done immediately to reduces cellphone costs and interconnection fees in particular-the additional charges levied when calls are made to a subscriber of one network to another -which they claim are exceptionally high.
Some people like myself are forced to have many sim cards so that we can switch from one network provider to the other, in order to reduce cost. Cell C is offering free minutes anytime. My friends and I have decided to have spare Cell C sim cards whenever we want to chat for a longer time on the phone as we are given free minutes to call any Cell C subscriber when we purchase airtime for more than R10,00. When are we getting a fair dea from network providers? When are the network providers going to plough back to the communities. Have'nt the network providers already enreached themselves to our detriment? Consider Ghana as an analogy for my concern. The Ghananias are ICT least developed compared to South Africa, but they pay less than half we pay for our cell phone calls.
They are demanding that something be done immediately to reduces cellphone costs and interconnection fees in particular-the additional charges levied when calls are made to a subscriber of one network to another -which they claim are exceptionally high.
Some people like myself are forced to have many sim cards so that we can switch from one network provider to the other, in order to reduce cost. Cell C is offering free minutes anytime. My friends and I have decided to have spare Cell C sim cards whenever we want to chat for a longer time on the phone as we are given free minutes to call any Cell C subscriber when we purchase airtime for more than R10,00. When are we getting a fair dea from network providers? When are the network providers going to plough back to the communities. Have'nt the network providers already enreached themselves to our detriment? Consider Ghana as an analogy for my concern. The Ghananias are ICT least developed compared to South Africa, but they pay less than half we pay for our cell phone calls.
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