Last December, the Competition Commission published the results of an investigation opened in 2017 after a sustained public outcry, which confirmed that data prices in South Africa were too high compared to the rest of the continent.
The report recommends that MTN and its rival Vodacom, the country's two largest mobile network operators, reach an agreement with the commission to reduce data prices, in particular for monthly prepaid plans, as well as the cost per 1 MB (megabyte) for small packages. .
Last month, Vodacom signed an agreement with the commission to cut data costs by more than 30% from April 1 and committed to a substantial two-year reduction in monthly data packets in all areas.
On Thursday, the Competition Commission said that MTN had already started negotiations with itself but was also forced to react in the market to these price changes and to the additional value for subscribers provided by Vodacom.
"These price and free data changes are now confirmed as irreversible commitments by a court order," he said.
Under the agreement, MTN will reduce the price of 30-day prepaid plans from May 1, with the cost of the monthly plan of 1 GB (gigabytes) reduced to R99 instead of R149.
It will also provide all of its customers with zero-rated access to up to 500 public utility and other education, health and recruiting websites. This will be capped at 500 MB per month per customer.
MTN has also agreed to allow all of its customers, free of charge, to manage their data usage through its Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) and through its website.
The Commission has also concluded data pricing agreements with Cell C and with the wired and wireless telecommunications provider Telkom.
"Confirmation of the agreement with MTN means that all mobile operators have now officially attributed the voluntary commitments contained in the recommendations of the market investigation into data on short-term price relief for consumers" , said the head of the Competition Commission, Tembinkosi Bonakele.
"This successful conclusion of the first phase of the recommendations could not have come at a better time given the greater dependence of the public on data during the crisis," he added, referring to the Covid-19 pandemic that affected South Africa and many other countries in the world.
The committee could now focus on medium-term recommendations for regulatory and legislative changes, as well as the development of free public Wi-Fi and alternative broadband infrastructure, said Bonakele.
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1 Comments
that so thoughtful of them..
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