There have been widespread calls for data costs in South Africa to be reduced in recent years. In 2018, the entry of a new competitor, Rain, shows how increased competition in South Africa’s telecommunications industry can reduce data costs and increase innovation. Since 2013, the price of a 1GB data bundle has not fallen below R149 (with the exception of Telkom Mobile).
The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) set floor prices for data and voice services including promotional packages, effective in January 2017. The floor prices are set at $0.12 per minute for voice services, and $0.02 per megabyte for data. Initially data prices were below $0.01 per megabyte.
According to the South African Competition Act, the competition authorities are obliged to consider public interest grounds in merger analysis. The guidelines which were recently finalised by the Competition Commission of South Africa, and gazetted in 2 June 2016, seek to provide guidance on how the Commission will evaluate public interest considerations when evaluating mergers.
