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Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda's "early Christmas box" is an empty box, said Juli Kilian, COPE MP on the Communication Portfolio Committee. "In fact, it could have the opposite effect since it could derail statutory processes which ICASA has commenced to provide for greater competition in the mobile industry."

Kilian criticised the Minister for creating expectations that mobile call rates will be reduced to 89c per minute. "The Minister should know that there is no correlation between interconnect rates and call rates. Furthermore, mobile operators say they did not agree to lower call rates, other than their normal Christmas packages. This could mean that the Minister misled Parliament." she said.

The announcement by the Minister has absolutely no statutory impact - only ICASA can approve interconnect agreements and regulate call rates.

The Minister's involvement in this process smacks of political opportunism. "After years of neglect of the communication sector by government the Minister wants to claim victory of processes initiated by the PC on Communication. The independent regulator ICASA should monitor interconnect rates - if they fail to do their job, they should be removed from office" Kilian said. "His political intervention sets a dangerous precedent - it effectively means we have regulation by political intervention."

Kilian warned that the Minister's announcement would create further uncertainty about ICASA's statutory processes. "What if ICASA now opts out of their statutory processes to determine cost based interconnect rates to ensure that smaller operators have more profitable interconnect agreements?"