ICCC yet to announce new call termination rates

THE Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) has delayed an announcement on the new termination rates for mobile phone calls.
The decision was expected last Friday, but was delayed to yesterday. The ICCC, however, did not make the expected announcement yesterday.
The interim rates currently being used expired in June this year, and the ICCC was to announce new rates based on submissions it received from mobile phone companies Digicel and bemobile.
Industry sources say the current rates heavily favour Digicel, which is owned by Irishman Denis O’Brien, and bankrolled by International Finance Corporation, an affiliate of the World Bank group.
bemobile is owned by Telikom, superfunds Nasfund and Nambawan Supa, PNG Sustainable Development, and overseas investors GEMS and Trilogy.
ICCC has not publicly said why it has delayed the announcement of the new rates.
Industry sources say they expect ICCC to follow the global trend and announce a reduction in the new rates.
“We also expect them to even the rates, as they currently heavily favour Digicel.
Digicel has set up a network where, with the current rates, it is able to control about 80% of the market,” the source said.