Duncan McLeod is founder and managing editor of TechCentral. With more than 30 years of experience in technology journalism, he has worked for and contributed to a range of publications, including the Financial Mail, the Sunday Times and the Financial Times.
MTN Group on Wednesday issued a statement to investors in which it criticised the Competition Commission’s final report on the data services market in South Africa, saying it will “vigorously defend against over-broad and intrusive recommendations” by the commission.
After a massive selloff on Monday, shares of South Africa’s biggest listed telecommunications companies continued to trade lower into Tuesday.
Vodacom and MTN must drop mobile data prices significantly, failing which the Competition Commission will consider prosecuting the two companies.
The Competition Commission on Monday unveiled surprisingly broad-ranging, tough and radical interventions in the data services market, including a proposal that mobile operators be forced to give South Africans a free allocation of daily data.
Vodacom and MTN said in reaction to interventions by the Competition Commission that a failure by government to allocate spectrum timeously is one of the reasons data prices are higher than they would otherwise be.
Communications regulator Icasa has said there is insufficient competition in aspects of the delivery of mobile broadband in South Africa.
Teraco CEO Lex van Wyk will step down as CEO of the giant data centre operator at the end of the year, the company said on Monday.
Ahead of publication of the Competition Commission’s final report flowing from its inquiry in the data services market, expected later on Monday, TechCentral republishes this column from editor Duncan McLeod.
Telkom has withdrawn a cautionary notice to shareholders about its proposed acquisition of Cell C after the board of the mobile operator spurned its approaches.
Shares in Telkom soared shortly after markets opened in Johannesburg on Friday as investors took cheer from the fact that the it won’t be burdened with rival Cell C’s debt problems.
