TELECOMS REGULATION
Low priority for high data price probe
South Africans have been campaigning for a reduction in data prices
Analysts have slammed what they describe as the lack of urgency by the telecoms regulator in probing high data prices and welcomed the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services’ suggestion that the Competition Commission may have to step in to address the matter. South Africans have been campaigning for a reduction in data prices. The most expensive are those being charged from prepaid users, who pay between 99c and R2 for 1MB of data, if they are Vodacom, MTN or Cell C customers. Lower income users tend to consume data on an ad hoc basis, which means it comes off their airtime rather than a prepaid data bundle. In such cases, the cost of data is horrendously high. The high price is holding back more rapid uptake as well as more intensive use of data in the mass market. Information and communications technology (ICT) services including data and voice constitute 4.6% of household expenditure. According to Telecommunications and Postal Services Minister Siyabonga Cwele, it ...
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