As the market continues to digest the\nCompetition Commission\u2019s summary findings on the data services market in South Africa,\nsome experts believe that their methodology in coming up with the findings was\nnot necessarily the right approach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Sabelo Dlamini, Senior Research\nand Consulting Manager at International Data Corporation (IDC) South Africa,\nthe South African mobile industry cannot be compared to those in other African\ncountries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are two issues that need to be\nconsidered here,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFirstly, the Competition Commission has focused quite strongly on the disparity between post- and pre-paid pricing, but this requires further, more in-depth scrutiny. Secondly, they are comparing South African mobile data pricing to other African countries, but the comparison is not as simple as it seems.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dlamini says the South African mobile operators\nhave gone the extra mile in deploying their networks while they did not have\nthe required 4G spectrum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese network operators had to work with 3G\nspectrum, re-farming that spectrum to deliver 4G services,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey have invested a lot in terms of\ntechnological design and engineering to achieve this. That means that the\ndesign and quality of service and experience in South Africa are much better\nwhen compared to other African countries.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dlamini adds that in most other African\ncountries, the operators have hand-picked certain cities or areas when\ndeploying the networks or planning the coverage, compared to South Africa where\nthere is more-or-less full coverage across the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe situation in South Africa is very\ndifferent from that in other countries on the continent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe telcos have invested a lot in\ninfrastructure in the country and they are therefore expecting higher returns.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From a pricing perspective, Dlamini believes\nthe Competition Commission should be delving deeper into the complex pricing\nmodels rather than just focusing on the price per Gig. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Competition Commission needs to unpack the\ncurrent pricing structures in more detail to determine how they can be\nremodelled to benefit the poor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes, one could easily focus on the price per\nGig, but that will result in blanket pricing, which will ultimately\ndisadvantage end-users or customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe pricing models need to be unpacked\ntechnically as there are several innovative products that can be used to\nimplement more adaptive and demand-based pricing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJust focusing on the standard price per Gig is\na more primitive way of pricing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHowever, if, using technology if you adjust\nyour pricing based on the amount of congestion and usage of a specific cell,\ncoupling those with some free zones, free minutes and zero-rated content, it\nwould have a far more beneficial outcome for end-users or customers.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Impact on MTN and Vodacom?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Regardless of whether the Competition\nCommission pushes ahead with the findings, consumers will continue to\ncommunicate and use data as they are using it now, possibly even more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe biggest impact on the operators will be\nthat they will take longer to repay the CAPEX costs of their network\ninvestments,\u201d said Dlamini.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut, focusing on a standard price list model\ncould result in customers losing the benefit of free zones, minutes and\nzero-rated content, which will disadvantage them even further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat is why we are urging the Competition\nCommission to delve deeper into existing technically advanced pricing models to\nrather determine how those can be made more efficient and more affordable to\nthe end-user.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n There could also be a broader negative impact\non the industry if both MTN and Vodacom half their prices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTelkom and Cell C currently position\nthemselves based on more affordable pricing,\u201d added Dlamini.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShould the two bigger operators bring their\ncost down significantly, it could have unintended consequences on the smaller\noperators, making it more difficult for them to compete.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is time to explore alternatives to mobile<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dlamini says that the mobile networks in South\nAfrica have reached saturation level and alternatives must be explored to\nconnect the unconnected efficiently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are several technologies available\noutside of mobile that can be used to connect the unconnected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have seen several organisations and projects within government, such as USAASA and SA Connect, that have not yielded the expected results. Building mobile networks is expensive, so if we are serious about connecting the unconnected, we need to start looking at alternative technologies, such as TV Whitespaces, Wi-Fi and satellite.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the market continues to digest the Competition Commission\u2019s summary findings on the data services market in South Africa, some experts believe that their methodology in coming up with the findings was not necessarily the right approach. According to Sabelo Dlamini, Senior Research and Consulting Manager at International Data Corporation (IDC) South Africa, the South […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":31066,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4950,6,103,399,19,9059,382],"tags":[1512,6949,1875,158,4692,3874,12111,12109,2868,453,747,12112,12110,924,83],"class_list":["post-31063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-insights","category-mobile","category-more-news","category-regional-news","category-south-africa","category-telecom","tag-capex","tag-cell-c","tag-competition-commission","tag-idc","tag-international-data-corporation","tag-mtn","tag-sa-connect","tag-sabelo-dlamini","tag-satellite","tag-south-africa","tag-telkom","tag-tv-whitespaces","tag-usaasa","tag-vodacom","tag-wi-fi"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31067,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31063\/revisions\/31067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}