Tuesday, July 28, 2009

SA Operators to Be Probed For Over Charging Users

SHAN Ramburuth, South Africa's Competition Commissioner, said he has opened investigations amid allegations that the country's telecommunications companies are overcharging customers.

She was responding to last week's letter by Independent Democrats President Patricia de Lille who lodged a complaint over the high costs of mobile phone calls in South Africa.
 
"The Competition Commission shares your concerns about the high costs of telecommunications in South Africa and indeed we have initiated a few investigations in the sector," Ramburuth said in his response.
 
De Lille welcomed the news that the Commission had already initiated investigations in the telecommunications sector and says she will be setting up a meeting with the Commissioner in the next few weeks.
 
De Lille had called on the Commission to investigate, 'in terms of the Act, whether the operators, particularly the dominant players, were acting anti-competitively or are guilty of any prohibited practices.
 
"The Competition Commission has over the past few years aggressively taken on price fixers involved in anticompetitive behavior and it is up to us as citizens to give the Commission even more teeth," said De Lille.
 
"Ordinary South Africans can no longer be expected to bear the brunt of the actions of those that have scant regard for the daily economic struggles of our people," she added.
 
South Africa has mobile network operators, MTN, Vodacom, Cell C and Virgin Mobile and landline operators Telkom and Neotel in the telecommunications services sector

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