Competition Commission: SA data prices ‘anti-poor‘

The commission released a preliminary report in Tshwane on Wednesday.

Commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele released the six findings, which looked into the general state of competition in the data services sector.

“The…retail pricing structure of mobile data is anti-poor and lacks transparency. The benchmarking exercise shows that lower price income consumers may be exploited to a far greater degree compared to wealthier consumers. An assessment of headline retail prices of all mobile operators demonstrate that consumers of small data bundles generally being poorer consumers generally pay inexplicably more on per MB or GB basis,” he said.

The commission has identified a provisional package of recommendations that could assist in providing relief for high data costs, especially for low income groups.

The public has been given until the end of May to comment on the commission’s preliminary report.