The Competition Commission gave a slap on Vodacom and MTN for charging their South African customers more for data compared to other countries where they operate in.
This is an act that makes one question a lot of things. In actual fact, one would have assumed that because these brands are South Africa and that they would have South Africa’s interest at heart. But no, Vodacom and MTN saw it fit to charge their South African customers more for data. What matters worse is that the two brands were exploiting the poor even more.
This is according the report released by the Competition Commission on Wednesday, 24 April 2019. In 2016, the commission opened an inquiry into data costs in response to the #DataMustFall movement.
The report uncovered data costs in South Africa were higher than South Africa’s BRICS and SADC counterparts.
The poor are the worst affected by this act. According to the Competition Commission chief economist James Hodge the poorer consumers were more exposed to out-of-bundle pricing, which puts them at greater risk of high prices. He further added that consumers that are on 100MB pay twice compared to those that are on 1GB on a per megabyte basis.
It is appalling what these brands that are doing and they are getting a Slap!
