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Economic Development dept to launch inquiry into ways to reduce mobile data costs

The Department of Economic Development has announced that it will instruct one of the entities that report to it to launch an inquiry into the cost of data in South Africa.

The probe aims at finding ways to reduce data costs.

During his department’s budget vote speech today, Minister Ebrahim Patel highlighted the importance of data in today’s society and how it impacts on economies.

“The Economist newspaper recently ran a cover story that describes data as the world’s most valuable resource, being ‘to this century what oil was to the last one: a driver of growth and change’. Yet the growth of this data-driven economy is constrained by high costs, which affect users of cell-phones and laptops and businesses who require high volumes of it,” Patel said.

Conversations around the cost of data in South Africa, which is significantly high for the country’s poorest, became widespread during last year’s #DataMustFall campaign.

“To promote the new data-driven economy and address high costs, and following discussion with Minister Cwele, I will request the Competition Commission to conduct a seven-market inquiry into this sector and to work with other regulators to establish the facts, identify measures to reduce data costs and make recommendations to government,” Patel added.

The Competition Commission is tasked with investigating, controlling and evaluating restrictive business practices, abuse of dominant positions and mergers in order to achieve equity and efficiency in the local economy.

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