Commission and MTN reach data price settlement
MTN SA has finally reached a consent agreement with the Competition Commission over data prices, more than six weeks after rival Vodacom did the same.
A Tech Central report says the agreement follows what the commission has described as ‘protracted discussion’ between the parties following the conclusion of the regulator’s data services market inquiry, which was finalised in December.
Vodacom and the commission concluded a consent agreement on 9 March, which took effect on 1 April after it was ratified by the Competition Tribunal.
The MTN agreement has now also been referred to the tribunal.
Under the agreement, MTN has undertaken to reduce the price of 30-day prepaid bundles up to 1GB, with the 1GB monthly bundle being reduced to R99; implement the retail price reductions across all its retail channels from 1 May; offer all its customers a daily free data bundle to use in its Ayoba application, capped at 20MB/day; offer all its customers zero-rated access to certain public-benefit websites and other sites from 1 May, capped at 500MB/month per customer; and enable all its customers to manage their data usage through USSD and on the MTNApp.co.za website.
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