MTN Group CEO Rob Shuter on Thursday voiced his disappointment in the Competition Commission’s report on the data services market in South Africa, arguing it was poorly framed and failed to acknowledge the successes of the industry.
The Competition Commission says data must fall; Vodacom and MTN say they need more spectrum. Ten years after communications regulator Icasa tried to license new spectrum, it still hasn’t happened.
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.
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.
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.