The Competition Commission is expected to release its findings in the first quarter of next year following its hearings on data costs in South Africa.
The three-day public hearings ended on Friday.
They gave opportunities to NGO’s, data service providers and the government to make representations to a panel.
Head of the technical team of the inquiry, Jason Aproskie, says the NGOs focused on the realities that the poorest of the poor experience with high data prices in the country.
“They focused on the view of the poorest consumers who pay higher prices on the per megabite or per gigabite basis than the larger volume or richer consumers. And the submissions really brought it into focus through both data, but also anecdotal stories of people’s experiences in their own communities, and their experience in communicating with family members or try to access government services and the affordability issues they find with using data services in South Africa.”
Meanwhile, Vodacom Chief Executive Officer Shameel Joosub says while data prices are coming down, they could go down faster if spectrum was made available.
He told the inquiry into data services that new spectrum has not been issued in 14 years, adding that the availability of spectrum affects network coverage and capacity that can be delivered in a cost effective way.
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