About Time: A gov inquiry into high data costs is coming

We are all sick of paying the completely ridiculous mobile data costs that terrorise SA. Paying hundreds for just 1gig of data is a common practice for many of us. Before you know it though, that data is gone, especially if you use your phone for work purposes.

Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel announced on Thursday that Competition Commission will launch a market inquiry into high data costs. Patel was speaking to journalists at Parliament before his Budget vote speech.

Last year saw the rise of the Data Prices Must Fall movement. This led to the portfolio committee on telecommunications and postal services conducting public hearings into high data costs.

However, Patel did not give specifics of when the inquiry will officially begin.

“I will be making a request to the Competition Commission to launch an inquiry into high costs of data,”

In a written parliamentary reply this week, Patel said that he would look to address the issue of competition in the telecommunications industry. This all comes after last month’s decision by the Competition Commission to not prosecute MTN and Vodacom, even though the cellular giants were accused of anti-competitive behaviour by Cell C.

Tembinkosi Banakele (Head of the Commission) says the commission shares the public’s concerns around data costs.

“Institutionally this is a complex issue but we actually share the concerns. I think as regulators we are increasingly under pressure to do something about communication, particularly data. It is worrisome because of its impact on the economy. I mean if you look at the South African infrastructure, we should have had advantages that are more than many other countries, especially in this continent, that are now ahead of us like Rwanda and Kenya. Part of the problem has been said to be this data (costs).”

Let’s hope this commission gets going soon and actually gets results. We all need more data and we need it for less…