Johannesburg — THE Internet Society of SA is calling for a meeting with government to register its complaints about the high cost of telecommunication services.

The request adds weight to a growing chorus of complaints about the high bandwidth fees charged by Telkom, and echoes a letter of protest sent to government last week by the Online Publishers Association.

A lack of competition to Telkom is seen as the reason for prohibitively high fees , the society says.

Reducing bandwidth costs was imperative to stimulate use of the internet, and government should become actively involved in making that a reality, said spokesman Ramon Thomas.

"The true cost of bandwidth is clear from a dramatic slowdown in the growth of internet use in SA," he said.

The internet could not only help spur economic growth as it had in firstworld countries, but could also be an educational tool to help reduce illiteracy , the society said.

Research house World Wide Worx says SA's number of internet users will grow from 3,28-million to 3,68-million this year.

While that would represent 10% growth, at that rate only one in 10 South Africans will be accessing the internet by 2006.

The Online Publishers Association wrote to Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri and the Independent Communications Authority of SA last week, calling for an urgent meeting with them to discuss Telkom's "high prices and inferior service".