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BusinessLive reports that Telkom will meet labour unions to discuss the possibility of job cuts should the network operator fail to persuade regulators to back down on proposed changes to call termination rates.
The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) intends from 1 October to lower the termination rates — also known as “interconnect” fees — that telecoms operators charge each other for carrying calls on their networks. Of concern to Telkom is that Icasa wants to slash termination rates for fixed-line operators from 10c to 3c by October 2020, while mobile termination rates would fall by 4c, to 9c. While no job cuts were imminent, Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko said they would meet the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and the SA Communication Union (Sacu) on Tuesday, as retrenchments “will be one of the options on the table” if Icasa did not budge. If effected, the changes would be “a calamity, a big problem, and we’d rather have that conversation with organised labour now rather than later so that all are on the same page”, Maseko stated. Asymmetrical termination rates, whereby fixed-line operators effectively “subsidise” mobile players, were first used in the 1990s to stimulate the growth of mobile services and break Telkom’s monopoly in the telecommunications space. Telkom wants Icasa to equalise fixed-line and mobile termination rates and then lower these fees at the same rate.
- Read this report by Nick Hedley in full at BusinessLive
- Read too, Telkom says lowering of termination rates could force job cuts, at Moneyweb
- And also, Telkom calls proposed rates cut a calamity that could force job cuts, at Fin24
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page