SA CELLPHONE OPERATORS PRESSED TO CUT RATES

       South African lawmakers want mobile-phone operators, including MTN Group and Vodacom Group, to slash interconnection fees by more than half.
       Cellular phone operators will appear before Parliament's portfolio committee on communications in public hearings to be held over two days starting tomorrow, Ismail Vadi, the committee's chairman, said by phone from Cape Town yesterday.
       Parliament has proposed that mobile-phone companies cut interconnection fees to 60 cents (Bt2.75) a munute from 1.25 rand this year, and reduce them by a further 15 cents a year over the next three years, Vadi said.
       Teh committee is aiming to exert more pressure on operators and the Independent Communciations Authority of South Africa after four years of talks to cut fees failed to result in any "significant progress", he added. "Interconnection rates in South Africa are amongst the highest in the world, and certainly in Africa," Vadi said. "The committee is extremely concerned about this. Lower fees will increase competition and will reduce communications costs in the country."
       MTN, Vodacom and other cellphone operators are meeting witht Icasa today to discuss reducing call charges, acting spokesman Josias Mathiba said by phone from Johannesburg yesterday.
       Icasa will make recommendations on pricing to lawmakers following today's meeting, he added.
       MTN, africa's biggest mobilephone operator, fell 1.95 rand, or 1.6 per cent, to 124.10 rand as of 10.14 am in Johannesbug yesterday. Vodacom slid 75 cents. or 1.4 per cent, to 53.65 rand.
       The Communications ministry may issue a policy directive to Icasa to force mobile-phone operators to slash fees, the department's spokesman, Tiyani Rikhotso, said.