Telkom launches new price tariffs in spite of ICASA’s planned crackdown

South Africa’s dominant telecoms company Telkom SA has issued a new set of tariffs for 2005, much to the surprise of industry regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), which has only just drawn up a series of guidelines specifically designed to curb Telkom’s tariff increases. As a result ICASA says it may have to force the incumbent into lowering its proposed fees for next year. Telkom filed its 2005 tariffs last week despite knowing that the industry watchdog was about to publish its own regulatory regime which would most probably render them unacceptable.