MBB: Mobile data prices in SA plunge amid competition and regulation

Key topics:SA mobile data costs fell significantly from 2020 to 2025.Regulatory actions and competition drove lower broadband prices.Prepaid and postpaid plans show varying declines; 5GB postpaid dropped most..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Myles Illidge.Communications minister Solly Malatsi says mobile data prices in South Africa declined significantly between 2020 and 2025.Responding to Parliamentary questions from Umkhonto Wisizwe MP Seeng Mokoena, Malatsi said the decline in data costs is indicative of the impact of increased competition and regulatory intervention.Mokoena asked why little had changed in South Africa’s data prices, despite years of engagement with the country’s network operators.Malatsi explained that, in 2022, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) licensed IMT spectrum to reduce broadband rollout costs and retail prices.“However, operators required time to integrate and monetise their spectrum allocations before the benefits were realised,” the minister said.“While Icasa has noted a downward trend in broadband costs, it has not yet assessed the specific impact of the 2022 IMT spectrum auction.”Nonetheless, he said Icasa had observed that its regulatory interventions, through its cost-to-communicate programme, have yielded various benefits for consumers.“A decline in data prices over a 5-year period (2020-2025) is indicative of the impact of increased retail price competition and regulatory interventions to reduce communication costs,” Malatsi said..Read more:.High data costs, limited broadband: Why South Africa is falling behind in the digital race.He provided a chart showing the decline in mobile broadband costs for prepaid data and postpaid data consumers in South Africa, based on Icasa’s report.It shows that for 30-day prepaid data, the cost of 1GB had dropped from R100 in 2020 to R79 in 2025, while the price of 500MB has only dropped slightly from R69.60 in 2020 to R69 in 2025.The chart for 30-day postpaid data tracks the cost of 1GB of data and 5GB of data over the same period. It shows that the cost of 1GB for postpaid consumers has remained constant at R40.However, the cost of 5GB of data has declined substantially. 5GB was R199 in 2020, which increased to R221 in 2021, before declining to R99 in 2023, 2024, and 2025. The charts are shown below..Competition driving broadband prices lowerAccording to Malatsi, fibre network operators (FNOs) and Internet service providers (ISPs) continue to adjust or introduce new fibre services and upgrade line speeds.He said Icasa has deemed these adjustments as being beneficial to the South African public.“Increased product choice and improvement in the quality of service result in competitive pricing and more product innovation,” the minister said.Moreover, Malatsi said that competitiveness in providing long-term evolution (LTE) and wireless Internet services has led to increased product offerings and lower prices for existing services.“An increase in the tariff notifications regarding URL-specific data bundles for over-the-top (OTT) services indicates an increase in the utilisation of OTT services by customers,” he added.By “URL-specific data bundles for OTT services”, Malatsi referred to data bundles for platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, and TikTok.The minister added that continued tariff filings relating to fibre line upgrades by operators have improved the quality of Internet services for the South African public.“The United Nations Broadband Commission recommends that ICT prices not exceed 2% of a country’s monthly gross national income (GNI) per capita and highlights the importance of reducing costs,” Malatsi said.The minister included data on the data-only mobile broadband basket as a percentage of GNI per capita from 2019 to 2023..Read more:.Starlink disrupts South Africa’s satellite internet market, leaving established providers struggling.“In 2023, the data-only mobile broadband basket, as a percentage of GNI per capita, shows significant improvements in affordability,” Malatsi said.“Angola saw a remarkable drop to 1.73%, while Namibia was at 1.06% and South Africa, at 1.65%, achieved competitive rates.”For reference, South Africa’s percentage was 3.95% in 2019, which declined to 2.53% in 2020, then to 2.32% in 2021 and 1.76% in 2022..This article was first published by MyBroadband and is republished with permission

MBB: Mobile data prices in SA plunge amid competition and regulation

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