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ECN recently hosted its annual Channel Awards evening in January at the Johannesburg Country Club in Woodmead. This black tie event is one of ECN’s most prestigious events on the calendar and is attended by invited partners, ECN management and staff.
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Date posted: Sunday, February 27th, 2011
ECN recently hosted its annual Channel Awards evening in January at the Johannesburg Country Club in Woodmead. This black tie event is one of ECN’s most prestigious events on the calendar and is attended by invited partners, ECN management and staff.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
Despite the move, Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys says the operator is doing the right thing. “We do not believe that the debate around glide paths, or the formal regulatory process, should delay the reduction in interconnection rates.”
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
Minister of Communications gives his views on the interconnect battle which has ensued between ICASA and the mobile operators.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
This follows the revelation of a letter from MTN to local alternative telecommunications company ECN, which proposes a glide path for the interconnect rate that may not reach the levels announced by the department to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
South Africa is well on its way to being spoilt with international and national bandwidth infrastructure. On the national level, Vodacom, MTN, Neotel and Dark Fibre Africa have been steadily rolling out metro fibre networks, which will eventually link the three major metro’s of Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
Skepticism still remains as to whether consumers will see significant retail price cuts related to the lower interconnect rates. Juli Kilian, COPE MP on the Communication Portfolio Committee, says that Nyanda’s ‘early Christmas box’ is an empty box
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
The fifth Annual MyBroadband conference began with John Holdsworth, CEO of ECN Telecoms, taking to the stage to talk about factors effecting the reduction of costs and the stimulation of competition in the South African telecoms market.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
The communications minister’s announcement that interconnect rates will be cut leaves many in the industry confused. The Department of Communications’ (DOC’s) announcement yesterday on interconnect rates has left many in the industry confused and concerned.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
The regulator is not considering dropping interconnect rates to cost, but is looking at a cost-based model. The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) is unlikely to force mobile termination rates to cost, even when it finalises its regulations next year June.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
The blended rate will not cover MTN\s interconnect costs, says MTN SA MD Karel Pienaar. MTN’s costs to terminate calls on its network are far higher than the proposed 78c blended interconnect fee it has agreed to implement with Vodacom.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
CELLPHONE groups may have thrown away their last chance to devise lower call fees that will not prove too onerous for them, with the collapse of roundtable talks leaving the industry regulator able to enforce its own bigger cuts.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
And Icasa’s proposal — that the operators confer, decide how much to claim it costs to run the service, and hike a 50% profit margin on top of that — is simply iniquitous. The communications minister’s belated decree that Icasa impose a cost-based fee is also rendered unnecessary.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
VARIOUS efforts under way to curb the cost of cellphone calls would be unnecessary if the industry regulator simply applied a law that has existed for five years, the communications minister has been told.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
In early September, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) convened a meeting with the major telecoms players to address what has recently flared up as a major issue in the cost of telecommunications debate: interconnection fees.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
The operators said they would start implementing a new way of negotiating interconnection rates and would have the new contract agreements in place by the end of December, with full implementation of the new rates as soon as February next year.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
The question is, will the number of cooks spoil the broth? The poor operators are facing something of an uphill battle when it comes to interconnect. With the massive media stink, they not only have to defend themselves against the authorities, but also against the people who feed them their revenue.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
The meeting resulted in an agreement that the interconnect negotiations between the operators will be concluded by the end of December 2009, with ICASA proposing an implementation date of potential new interconnect rates by 01 February 2010.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
Government is determined to bring down telecom costs and will draft new telecom policies over the next 12 months to attain this goal. This is likely to mean a drop in the interconnection fee – the money operators pay one another to transmit calls on their networks.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
9 September 2009 – It’s a debate that has been raging in SA for years, but the mobile interconnection fee question has come to the fore again, with government, opposition parties and organisations again lobbying Icasa to do something about it.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
The Icasa study has had a mixed reception, as some experts close to the industry say it could take years to reach conclusions that would benefit hard-pressed South Africans who will continue to face exorbitant communications costs.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
But advocate Gilbert Marcus believes the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) is wrongly refusing to force down that interconnection fee by claiming it cannot act without conducting in-depth market research. No more studies were necessary, and it could cut the fees now
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
High interconnect rates have long been fingered as one of the major reasons for the high call rates in South Africa. “South African telecommunications prices, fixed and mobile, remain among the highest in the world.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
A DRASTIC slashing of the fees telecoms companies have to pay for the right to operate has been cautiously welcomed, after warnings that the initial hefty fee proposals threatened to drive numerous companies out of business.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
Should ICASA decide to implement the rules, SA’s competitive telecommunications landscape will be substantially changed, enabling smaller mobile virtual network operators (MVNO’s) to directly compete with the likes of Vodacom and MTN.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
This raises the question about the pricing of broadband in South Africa: when will consumers see significant price cuts and by how much can they expect broadband pricing to drop?
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
However, for a player such as Altech which took the fight for its right to hold an electronic communications network services (ECNS) licence (as well as an electronic communications services licence, or ECS) to the courts and won the same right for every other Vans operator – the wait must be frustrating.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
This is a seminal moment,” CEO John Holdsworth said. “It’s been eight years of blood, sweat and tears and none of us believed these would actually be issued. Only when we have the licence in our hands will we believe all this nonsense is behind us.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
While the news of the High Court judgement was widely welcomed, and was considered by many a landmark ruling, the industry’s celebrations were tempered by the climate of uncertainty still surrounding ther aspects of the ECA yet to be promulgated.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
Icasa also listed the converted licences that were now ready for collection. The five major players – Vodacom, Cell C, MTN, Neotel and Telkom – get I-ECS and I-ECNS licences after finalisation of licence fees regulations. Twenty-seven other players have now been awarded I-ECNS and I-ECS licences for the first time.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
However, John Holdsworth, the chief executive of ECN, suggested that the Independent Communication Authority of SA (Icasa) should introduce the carrier pre-select (CPS) regulation. This would enable subscribers to retain their existing numbers and use an existing Telkom line to route calls to another operator.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
THE RECENT HIGH COURT ruling in favour of Altech Autopage is a landmark one. It means value-added network service (Vans) licensees can roll out their own telecoms networks instead of beingforced to buy from the incumbent operators.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
This has led to a “ludicrous situation” in South Africa, according to John Holdsworth, ECN CEO. “Without the new licences, the industry is being governed from the grave and is being forced to use the old vocabulary with the old limitations,” he stresses.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
However, the value-added network service providers (Vans) say they still have a quagmire of legalities to navigate. And self-provisioning isn’t necessarily the route to a competitive telecoms market in South Africa, argues John Holdsworth, CEO of ECN. “Icasa still
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
Some value-added networks services (Vans) licensees had feared Icasa wouldn’t meet its self-imposed August deadline to issue them with their new licences, but the regulator confirmed late last week the “ink was just drying” on their new licences and they would be formally issued over the next few days.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
Matsepe-Casaburrie says it was never her intention to allow Vans licensees to build their own networks. Icasa flip-flopped on the issue, first siding with industry, then with the minister.
Date posted: Sunday, July 18th, 2010
This is due to the Independent Communications Authority of SA’s (ICASA’s) decision to allocate 087 numbers to VANS to on-sell to clients who want their VOIP networks to receive inbound calls from businesses using Telkom and Neotel landlines, they say.
Date posted: Saturday, July 17th, 2010
For those that seek that right – such as Internet Solutions and Vox Telecom – the continuation of the licensing process means only a glaring reminder that the incumbent operators will see their old license converted.
Date posted: Saturday, July 17th, 2010
There is a new player in the telecommunications space, and it is rapidly emerging as the number one fixed-line alternative to Telkom. here is a new player in the telecommunications space, and it is rapidly emerging as the number one fixed-line alternative to Telkom.
Date posted: Saturday, July 17th, 2010
However, although ECN says it can build a good business providing clients with savings and good service under its current environment, Holdsworth’s clearly frustrated.
