The South African government has reached an agreement with mobile operators Cell C, Vodacom and MTN to cut mobile termi nation charge (MTC), lowering communication costs nationwide.

The South African government has reached an agreement with mobile operators Cell C, Vodacom and MTN to cut mobile termination charge (MTC), lowering communication costs nationwide.

According to the agreement, MTC has been lowered to $0.12 during peak hours and to $0.103 otherwise, and will be effective from February 2010. A state committee had earlier proposed that the rates should be cut to $0.08 per minute during peak times and be lowered by a further $0.02 annually until 2012. At present, the operators charge each other about $0.17 per minute for transferring calls to each other’s networks during peak times.