Telkom Group CEO Sipho Maseko has slammed the Competition Commission for intervening directly in prices in the data services market, warning using this “blunt and archaic” tool is an “ineffective instrument that may ultimately have unintended and deleterious consequences”.
The Competition Commission’s final report on the data services market in South Africa is, frankly, an embarrassment. It amounts to regulatory overreach and dangerous populism that could threaten billions of rand in planned investments in the coming years. By Duncan McLeod.
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.
Cell C’s creditors aren’t giving up on a takeover offer from rival Telkom, which South Africa’s third largest mobile network operator rejected last week.
Shares of Vodacom Group and MTN Group slumped after South Africa’s two biggest mobile phone companies were ordered to step up efforts to lower data prices within the next two months or face prosecution.
Communications regulator Icasa has said there is insufficient competition in aspects of the delivery of mobile broadband in South Africa.
Telkom has withdrawn a cautionary notice to shareholders about its proposed acquisition of Cell C after the board of the mobile operator spurned its approaches.
Cell C is pulling the plug on Black, its ill-fated video-on-demand platform in which it invested well north of R1-billion since its launch just two years ago.
Communications regulator Icasa said on Tuesday that it will probe the just-signed expanded roaming agreement between MTN South Africa and Cell C.
