Africa's largest cellular provider MTN denies it owes Cell C millions in an interconnection feud.
At the weekend, news reports emerged that Cell C had complained to the competition authorities, claiming MTN owed it R200 million in interconnection fees. MTN's GM of regulatory affairs, Graham de Vries, says he was "surprised" by the move. "MTN is surprised that Cell C holds the views that they do."
A Sunday paper says Cell C filed a complaint with the Competition Commission, alleging, among other things, that MTN charged it different rates when interconnecting community telephone calls.
The feud, which dates back two years, saw MTN stop paying interconnection fees to Cell C, and the smaller operator subsequently ceased paying fees to the larger operator. The net result, the paper quotes Cell C as saying, is that the smaller operator is owed R200 million in fees.
'Mistaken belief'
At the heart of the matter is a regulatory mandate for cellular firms to provide community service telephony lines (CSTs). Cell C has an obligation to provide 52 000 lines, while Vodacom is required to provide 22 000 and MTN 7 000 lines.
Cell C argues that this good growth area upset MTN, which was losing out on fees as Cell C had managed to meet its mandate. The interconnection fee on community phones is 6c, compared to the fee on normal calls of R1.23, Cell C argues.
However, MTN says Cell C had not followed the letter of the law in rolling out its CSTs. This was the subject of a court hearing last year and the larger cellular provider says its position was vindicated in the December judgment.
"The High Court has found that the decisions to approve the roll-out plans of the Cell C community service phones are so vitiated with irregularities that those approvals have been set aside. In fact, Cell C conceded the illegality of those approvals," says De Vries. He adds that Cell C is mistaken in its belief that it is owed money.
The commission is expected to decide by the end of this month whether to refer the matter to a higher authority, the tribunal. Cell C was not immediately available to comment.
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