Wait for interconnect dust to settle before signing new LCR deals

South African businesses that rely on cellular least-cost routing (LCR) services to keep telecom costs down should not sign new contracts with their LCR providers until there is more clarity about mobile interconnect fee structures and regulations from the telecom regulator, ICASA.

That's the word from Louise Hepburn, telecommunications product manager at Itec. She says that the industry still has little clarity about how far and how quickly interconnect tariffs are going to fall in line with ICASA's drive to push interconnect tariffs down.

Mobile interconnect rates, or mobile termination rates, are the charges that mobile networks (MTN, Cell C and Vodacom) pay for connecting their subscribers to networks of their rival operators.