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ID President Patricia de Lille has slammed cell phone operators for what she calls ‘a double rip-off', after Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda confirmed that Telkom is paying around 6 times the amount in interconnection rates to cell phone companies than it is receiving from them.

‘As if it isn't enough that taxpayers and the poor are being ripped off by exorbitant interconnection fees, the cell phone operators pay Telkom, of which the public are the chief shareholders, one sixth of what they are being paid in return,' Ms De Lille says.

The ID President was reacting to an answer to a question [below and attached], for written reply, to Minister Nyanda, in which she asked him, ‘how much did Telkom (i) pay and (ii) receive from cellular phone operators for interconnection fees in the past two financial years and (b) at what rate was this payment?'

‘The Minister's revelation that in 2009 Telkom paid R5.4 billion in interconnection rates to cell phone operators, while it received only R916 million from them in rates in return, is disgusting,' says De Lille.

‘This huge disparity in rates is just one more reason why they need to be reduced as a matter of urgency.'

Reacting to an answer from the Minister to a second question [below] submitted for written reply, in which the party asked whether there was a "cooling off period for former Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) councillors before they may work in companies or institutions within the communications industry", De Lille says ‘it is about time we look into this.

‘Icasa has for too long been used as a headquarters for the cell phone companies, with a disturbing number of the regulatory body's councillors either arriving straight from cell phone operators' board rooms, or heading straight into them.

‘We certainly welcome the Minister's promise that we will look into this because South Africans have a right to be able to differentiate between a regulatory body that should represent their interests and the cell phone operators that have been threatening them,' says De Lille.

The ID President says she is ‘looking forward to Icasa's appearance before the communications portfolio committee on Tuesday 15 September, where they will certainly have a lot of answering to do.'