Vodacom, MTN stifle the public’s right to communicate, says rights lobby group

SOUTH African mobile network operators Vodacom and MTN are the main culprits stifling the public’s right to communicate, with high airtime and data costs continuing to undermine the democratising potential of mobile networks, says rights lobby group Right2Know.

The lobby group on Wednesday launched its campaign to call for free basic and affordable telecommunications by marching to MTN and Vodacom offices in Cape Town, and to the offices of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa. An estimated 500 protesters took part in the march, which the lobby group said would also take place in Johannesburg next month and in Durban in August.

The cost to communicate in South Africa is among the highest in the world. The country has been ranked 117th out of 140 countries in terms of mobile tariffs.

In a letter sent to Vodacom and MTN last month, Right2Know demanded, among other things, that the cellphone groups make SMSes free all day and every day and that they pass the full reduction in the price of termination rates on to customers. Termination rates are the fees operators pay each other for customers to make calls across networks.

Mark Weinberg, national co-ordinator for Right2Know, said on Wednesday it was a matter of time before the cost to communicate in South Africa was significantly reduced, in line with international trends.

“History is on our side … around the world the cost to communicate has dropped dramatically and we think we can make a proper contribution (towards reducing the cost to communicate),” Mr Weinberg said.

He said the lobby group had targeted Vodacom and MTN because they were the “duopoly” controlling almost 80% of the market. Smaller operators such as Cell C have been trying to compete and reduce prices but are struggling to compete with the two big companies, Mr Weinberg said.

Last year, during Parliament’s public hearings on communications costs in South Africa, the Department of Communications said Vodacom and MTN were the most resistant to passing mobile termination rates price cuts on to consumers and were mainly responsible for high mobile voice prices in the country.

During her budget speech last month, Communications Minister Dina Pule said she “intends to issue a policy directive on transparent pricing of services such as SMS, voice and data to ensure market pricing transparency for the benefit of consumers”.

Earlier this month, Icasa said it intended to embark on a programme to identify and resolve the major challenges and barriers to lower communication costs to industry and the end-user.

Icasa said the programme stemmed from concerns about the high cost to communicate raised by private entities and the government, and it would look into price transparency.

Vodacom and MTN were not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.

This article was written by Bekeleza Phakhati and it was published in the Business Day on 12 June 2013