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Sponsor's Message
12 October 2006
Confusion over MTN VOIP tariffs
BY
BANDILE SIKWANE
, ITWEB JOURNALIST
[
Johannesburg, 12 October 2006
] -
The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) has not received a tariff application from MTN to charge customers R25 per megabyte for the use of the operator's VOIP services, it says.
However, the regulator says it will not take action against the cellular operator unless consumers lodge formal complaints against the recently introduced tariffs.
Meanwhile, MTN is adamant it has lodged an application with ICASA.
We have filed for a tariff of R25 per megabyte with ICASA for VOIP and have the right to either block VOIP or charge the R25 per megabyte tariff. MTN lodged the tariff with ICASA in March last year, says MTN's GM for data and messaging, Brian Seligmann.
At the time of publication, he could not, however, confirm whether ICASA has approved the tariff, but was confident this was the case.
Johannesburg-based lawyer Daniel Pretorius, a partner at Bowman Gilfillan, says: If a mobile licensee charges tariffs that have not been lodged with and approved by ICASA, the licensee might be contravening its licence conditions, although this would require a finding by ICASA pursuant to an investigation.
He advises consumers who believe that a licensee is charging a tariff that has not been approved by the regulator to lodge a complaint for investigation.
If ICASA were to find that the complaint is justified, it may issue an order requiring the licensee to remedy the matter by charging approved tariffs. Aggrieved customers would have to pursue civil remedies in the courts, should they wish to claim monetary compensation, says Pretorius.
BMI-TechKnowledge telecoms analyst Richard Hurst states: The problem with billing VOIP traffic is that as we move towards a packet-based network environment, where IP becomes pervasive, operators will find it hard to single out packets as being either voice, data or video packets.
In the future, the billing scenario will be based on the amount of data that is consumed, not what service is used over that pipe.
However, the regulator says it will not take action against the cellular operator unless consumers lodge formal complaints against the recently introduced tariffs.
Meanwhile, MTN is adamant it has lodged an application with ICASA.
We have filed for a tariff of R25 per megabyte with ICASA for VOIP and have the right to either block VOIP or charge the R25 per megabyte tariff. MTN lodged the tariff with ICASA in March last year, says MTN's GM for data and messaging, Brian Seligmann.
At the time of publication, he could not, however, confirm whether ICASA has approved the tariff, but was confident this was the case.
Johannesburg-based lawyer Daniel Pretorius, a partner at Bowman Gilfillan, says: If a mobile licensee charges tariffs that have not been lodged with and approved by ICASA, the licensee might be contravening its licence conditions, although this would require a finding by ICASA pursuant to an investigation.
He advises consumers who believe that a licensee is charging a tariff that has not been approved by the regulator to lodge a complaint for investigation.
If ICASA were to find that the complaint is justified, it may issue an order requiring the licensee to remedy the matter by charging approved tariffs. Aggrieved customers would have to pursue civil remedies in the courts, should they wish to claim monetary compensation, says Pretorius.
BMI-TechKnowledge telecoms analyst Richard Hurst states: The problem with billing VOIP traffic is that as we move towards a packet-based network environment, where IP becomes pervasive, operators will find it hard to single out packets as being either voice, data or video packets.
In the future, the billing scenario will be based on the amount of data that is consumed, not what service is used over that pipe.
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