The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) has refused to consider the new tariffs Telkom filed with it late last week.
The regulator agrees with Telkom that there is a regulatory vacuum and that there are currently no rules on what increases are allowed. But while Telkom says this leaves it free to impose whatever increases it sees fit, ICASA says it means the body is not free to authorise the increases.
"In the circumstances, the authority, being a statutory body, can only exercise those powers given it either by the enabling statute or by regulations and directives promulgated there under," ICASA said in a statement on Friday. "In the absence of such instruments, any action by the authority can be viewed as ultra vires the powers of the authority. It is on this basis and primarily due to the absence of these regulatory instruments that the authority cannot evaluate the tariffs submitted by Telkom."
Telkom said last week that there were no legal grounds for ICASA to reject the tariff filing it made on Wednesday. The company has refused to comment on the regulator`s statement, but says it plans to go ahead with the increases on 1 January if it is not legally prevented from doing so.
The exact nature of the increases is also still a contentious issue. Telkom says the average consumer will see an increased of 7.2% on their monthly bills, a composite figure which it calculated based on usage patterns. ICASA, however, says the increase is more than three times that and consumers will pay 23.9% more.
The authority calls such an increase devastating and says it fails to see how such an increase could help bridge the digital divide, as Internet access is charged at local call rates.
ICASA has called on Telkom to wait for communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri to make the rate regime it submitted to her legally enforceable. Alternatively it says the publication of the Telecommunications Amendment Bill could reinstate the rules which previously bound the Telkom increases.
Telkom, on the other hand, says it had to file its increase application by the 14 November deadline to be able to implement the increases in January. It rejected statements that it had been opportunistic in its timing.
"The authority will not shirk in its attempts to protect consumers from excessive monopoly pricing and will not be intimidated by threats of court action," says ICASA.
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