Regulator cuts inter connectivity rates

The Telecom Regulator announced sweeping price reductions in the Reference Interconnection Offer (RIO) rates that CyTA charges the independent telecom operators, which will hopefully lead to some price reductions for the public and more competition in the telecom sector.

The RIO charges for fixed connections were slashed from 0.48 cent for single transit to 0.32 cent as predicted by the Financial Mirror, while the double transit was cut from 0.66 cent to 0.55c/60 per second. For the mobile networks, the price was cut to 1.24/60 cent per second. The Telecom Regulator also introduced the local call termination at 0.20/60 cent per second.

In layman?s terms, if a call originates in Nicosia and the independent telecom has a routing centre in Nicosia, then the cost is charged as single until it reaches CyTA. If it originates in another town and until it reaches the routing centre, it is described as double.

By slashing the RIO charges, the Telecom Regulator wishes to give adequate cushion to the independent telecoms to generate a satisfactory profit margin and introduce new services as part of the deregulation drive.

The ruling affects the level of charges that independent telecoms like Telepassport, areeba, OTEnet, Callsat, Thunderworx and Teledome charge their clients.