Johannesburg – The struggle over the high cost of voice and data services continue as it impacts on people on all levels of society; from the most vulnerable in townships/villages and far-fetched rural areas to low and middle-income earners who simply cannot afford the data purchases needed to stay connected in today’s digital economy.
It is against this brief background that ICASA is hosting the Critical Thinking Forum under the theme “Conversation on voice and data costs”. The Forum is bringing different stakeholders (academia, civil society, government, network providers, analysts, etc.) under one roof to debate about the plight of consumers and discuss possible solutions to heed the call of making the cost of communication affordable.
Of the top 6 biggest African markets, South Africa’s data prices are by far the highest, charging around R150.00/GB and the cheapest being around R100/GB. “The most apparent reason for this price differential between South Africa and other African countries is the amount of spectrum or capacity they have; which makes it clear that lack of spectrum allocation is a constraint towards reducing the cost of data,” says ICASA Chairperson, Rubben Mohlaloga.
With the coming into effect of the Electronic Communications Act of 2006, convergence of technologies has rapidly arrived, in a never envisaged form fueled by fast and ubiquitously available Internet Protocol (IP) networks, consumer usage and broadcasting patterns have also shifted.
It is therefore critical that ICASA collaborates with all stakeholders and debate these developments therefore respond to difficult questions such: What impact is convergence having on the value chain and where are the bottlenecks and what policy imperatives should be looked into to respond to these developments?
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