Data Dilemma

The #DataMustFall hashtag may have fallen, but that’s not true of data prices.Are we paying too much for information? Lumka Nofemele investigates.

DATA IS TOO EXPENSIVE – well, for me, at least. Sans Wi-Fi, I consume just a little over 10 gigs of data a month, which ends up costing more than what I spend on food and transport combined.

And I’m not alone in this. You only have to gather around the water cooler, meet friends for coffee or spend time online to encounter someone with yet another complaint about how data is too expensive and which service provider is taking customers for a bigger, increasingly costly ride.

In simple terms, the more money you have, the better your access to basic information.

Understandably, there’s concern at the highest level among those tasked with managing the nation’s well-being; financial and otherwise. President Zuma even went so far as to warn during his most recent State of the Nation address that cutting the cost of data would be a national priority this year.

“We assure the youth that the lowering of the cost of data is uppermost in our plans,” Zuma told the nation in February. This was underlined in a subsequent media briefing addressed by the Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services, Siyabonga Cwele. “It is only when you have competitive service providers that you will bring the cost of data down,” Cwele said.

According to the Minister, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa is currently conducting a study on the price of data, with a focus on competition. “They are supposed to finalise a study this year, because we are also concerned about this relatively high cost of data.”

And the study isn’t merely about establishing pricing trends. It’s aimed at finding solutions to high prices, too: “We have asked them to come with specific recommendations on intervention,” Cwele said.