| Additional
resources
CUASA's .xls pricing schedule
- includes increase comparisons
Link to Telkom's
Online Price List
Agree with this statement? A three minute call from a landline
to an international destination will cost more than the same
landline call to a cellular phone.
The answer,
of course, is that it depends on the international destination.
It's simply cheaper to phone most Southern African countries
and others such as Liechtenstein and Luxembourg from a landline
than it is to phone your secretary's cell phone while she
is doing the banking 3km away.
Most employees
will not think twice about phoning a cellular number and chatting
for several minutes - even for personal reasons. Conversely,
a call to an international destination is likely to be perceived
as expensive. However, according to the Communication Users
Association of South Africa's Ray Webber, the cost of making
an international call is reducing annually when compared with
other telephonic communication, particularly cellular phones.
"The
cost of telephoning cellular phones from a Telkom line have
escalated by 5.6% in the company's new rate structure. In
comparison, increases to international destinations are generally
much lower than this rate," says Webber. "This trend
is widely known as the 'Death of distance' and has been fuelled
internationally by widespread competition," he says.
Telkom
announced late last year that the monopoly would be reducing
the cost of calls to a number of popular international fixed
line destinations in 2003. Calls to fixed lines in Australia,
France, Italy and Switzerland have been reduced to R3-22 per
minute in international peak time and to R2-90 per minute
in off-peak periods. "In these cases, the actual cost
of a call to an international destination has been reduced
in real terms. This provides additional evidence for the concept
of the death of distance," says Webber. "Interestingly,
the cost of calling these countries from a landline is often
cheaper than the cost of calls from pre-paid cellular phone
to other cellphones and landlines (local and long-distance)."
Webber
says that for the average business, over 50% of their monthly
telephone costs can be attributed to calls made to cellular
phones. "That is not to say that most calls are made
to cellular phones - they are just significantly more expensive
than calls to a local landline," he says.
Interestingly,
a 1997 N Vittal Column, [www.rediff.com/computer/jun/30vittal.htm]
entitled The death of distance comments that the growth of
telecommunication in any country depends on four engines.
These are technology, political will, regulation in judicial
activism and market dynamism.
At that
time, the column read: "In India, the telecommunications
sector of the economy is coming alive after a government monopoly
of over a century, thanks to a 1991 turnaround in economic
policy. Later, the 1994 telecom policy articulated the political
will of the government. With the setting up of the Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India we will hopefully see greater
play of regulatory forces and judicial activism. These will
create the requisite environment for market dynamism which
will ultimately benefit the consumer on the one hand and on
the other the Indian industry to compete effectively in the
domestic and global markets."
"It's
important to note that India moved quickly to open their telecommunications
industry resulting in a host of call-centre and technology-based
operations. South Africa could also benefit from the 'Death
of distance' and competition is key to reducing the cost of
both international and local calls - regardless of whether
the user makes use of fixed or wireless lines," says
Webber.
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