INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AUTHORITY

1st Floor, Jade House, Remy Ollier & Car Jummah Mosque Streets,

Port Louis,  MAURITIUS

 

No. ICTA/DP/TO/01/2003                                                                                                       14th May, 2003

 

 

THE TELECOMMUNICATION ORDER (2 of 2003)

 

 

In exercise of the powers conferred upon it under the Information & Communication Technologies Act 2001, the Information & Communication Technologies Authority (hereinafter referred to as the Authority) hereby makes the following order in respect of tariff for inter-island roaming by mobile subscribers:

 

1.                  Short title, extent and commencement:

 

i.                     This Order shall be called “The Telecommunication Order (2 of 2003)”.

ii.                   The Order shall come into force with immediate effect.

  

 2.     Tariffs for Mobile Telecommunication Services

  

i.                         The tariff for calls made or received by subscribers of Mauritius while “roaming” in Rodrigues and of Subscribers of Rodrigues while roaming in Mauritius shall be subject to the maximum tariff specified in Schedule-I hereto.

ii.                       The above tariff shall apply with immediate effect.

iii.                      It shall be open to the mobile operators to charge tariffs lower than those prescribed above.

 

3.     Explanatory Memorandum

 

         This Order contains at Annexure-A, an explanatory memorandum to provide clarity regarding the tariffs specified in this Order.

 

BY ORDER

 

 

 

M.A.Bocus,

Director of Legal Affairs & Board Secretary,

Information & Communication Technologies Authority

 

 

To:

 

i.   M/s Cellplus Mobile communications Limited, 9th Floor, Telecom Tower, Port Louis.

ii.  M/s Emtel Limited, 1, Boundary Road, Rose Hill.

iii. M/s Mauritius Telecom Limited, 18th Floor, Telecom Tower, Port Louis

 

 

Schedule-I

 

 

Tariff for calls by Mobile Subscribers

on Inter-Island Roaming

 

1

Date of Implementation

Immediate

2

Rental, Deposit, etc

No additional amount.

3

Air time charge & other charges     

 

(i) Outgoing Calls

The charges for making a call by roaming subscribers from the other island shall be equal to the outgoing call charges (for all categories such as local PSTN, PSTN of home island, local mobile, home mobile, IDD, etc) as per its subscribed plan plus a supplementary charge Rs.0.50 per minute

 

(ii) Incoming Calls

The charges for receiving a call by the roaming subscriber from any where shall be the total of

(a) Outgoing call charge (in respect of inter-island calls) plus

(b) Incoming call charge

4

Pulse Rate

Same as that applicable under the subscriber’s plan

 

Annexure-A

 

 

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

 

 

  1. Cellplus Mobile Communication Services Limited has informed the Authority of the launch of its mobile services in Rodriques Island on 2nd April 2003 and sought approval for the tariff to be levied on subscribers on inter-island roaming.

 

  1. The tariff for mobile services in Rodriques is the same as the tariff applicable to ‘Cellplus’ subscribers in Mauritius, for both post paid and pre-paid categories, except for the charges for accessing Audiotex services.  The Audiotex services attract a higher tariff as the server is located in Mauritius. Accordingly, the charges for Audiotex services by mobile subscribers in Rodriques shall be increased by the actual per minute charge payable to Mauritius Telecom Limited for inter-island calls.   

 

  1. With mobile network in Rodriques, it would be possible for the subscribers of both Rodrigues and Mauritius to receive and make calls while being in the other network. This shall be called ‘inter-island roaming’.  

 

  1. Cellplus has filed with the Authority tariff in respect of its post paid subscribers of Mauritius while roaming in Rodriques. The roaming services for Rodriques subscribers while in Mauritius are not launched currently. Similarly it may be possible later to allow inter-island roaming to pre-paid subscribers also. The Authority has fixed the tariff for roaming by any subscriber of Mauritius or Rodriques.

 

  1. The Authority enquired about the actual cost of provision of roaming and was informed by Cellplus that the separate cost of provision of the facility is not available.

 

  1. Accordingly, the tariff has been examined by the Authority with regard to the additional burden on the subscribers availing themselves of this service. 

 

  1. For an outgoing call Cellplus proposed a differential additional charge in respect of subscribers of categories ‘special’, ‘optima’ & ‘excelsior’. Further, the same charges are proposed for the entire 24 hours without any concession for off peak hours. The additional charges range from Rs.0.50 per minute to Rs.2.00 per minute.

 

  1. In the absence of cost details and in order to avoid discrimination between subscribers of different plans, the Authority considers Rs.0.50 (exclusive of VAT) as adequate for the additional work involved.

 

  1. In case of delivery of call to the other island, the mobile operator would be required to pay the charge for carriage of calls between islands to Mauritius Telecom. The cost to roaming subscribers thus includes the inter island call charges. For airtime purposes such calls will be reckoned as two calls – one outgoing and one incoming. The total charges for receiving any call would be the total of outgoing rate (inter-island calls) plus incoming airtime. Accordingly, for receiving a call, the Authority approves the tariff as proposed by Cellplus. There shall be no change in the charges payable by the calling party.

 

  1. Based on above, the Authority has approved the tariff as given in Schedule-I and illustrated in Annex B.

 

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