Cape Town - Relief is in sight for internet and cellphone users groaning under the weight of high data costs if Communications Minister Dina Pule has her way.
Pule announced, during her budget vote speech on Tuesday, she would issue a policy directive to communications regulator Icasa to enforce transparent pricing for services like SMS, voice and data to help boost competition.
The high cost of communicating had to change, she said.
A young person had told her they had four SIM cards from different network operators to take advantage of various off-peak specials so they could afford to stay in touch.
“We really have to do something as the policy maker in the country, we have to direct the policy to make sure that Icasa helps us to deal with the issue of costs to communicate,” Pule said.
The deputy director-general in the department for policy, Themba Phiri, said the “mischief” in ensuring greater broadband penetration was the high cost of accessing it.
“What does it cost the consumer to to send an SMS, to download, the time it takes to do the download – this is at the crux of dealing with the issue of broadband access, broadband competition and ensuring transparency,” Phiri said.
DA MP Butch Steyn said in his response to Pule’s budget vote speech that South Africa was “failing fundamentally in the provision of globally competitive prices” for internet services.
Citing data from Net Index, an independent internet monitoring service, he said South Africa was ranked 124th out of 182 countries for overall internet download speeds, with a speed of 3.82 megabits per second.
This compared unfavourably with other emerging markets such as Brazil, at 7.2 megabits per second, Turkey at 7.9, China at 10.16 and Thailand’s 11.59 megabits per second.
“Even countries with far lower rates of economic development experience greater download speeds, such as Rwanda – 5.22 and Ethiopia with 5.42. (South Africans) increased prices and slower download speeds, caused by a lack of competition, elevate costs for businesses, which subsequently reduce their overall profitability, small businesses being particularly vulnerable to such costs,” Steyn said.
Political Bureau