Accessing the internet with low data costs should not be considered a privilege, but a right for all citizens.
Hours after the news that the Competition Commission had ordered two of South Africa’s largest mobile networks to cut the cost of their data bundles by 50%, and long-suffering consumers jumped for joy, the response from one of the networks was like that of a wet blanket.
South Africa’s mobile subscribers, at last count 90 million, have long complained over the cost of mobile data, for which they believed they were being fleeced, particularly by the two largest networks, Vodacom and MTN. This was confirmed by the Competition Commission, which said: “The evidence, including the benchmarking assessments and profitability analyses, confirm that South Africa’s prices are too high.
“When considering prepaid mobile data prices, both existing international comparisons and research conducted by the commission confirm that South Africa performs poorly relative to other countries.”
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