South Africans have never been shy about debating the cost of mobile data. For years, network operators were accused of charging too much and doing too little to support digital inclusion.
The #DataMustFall movement, persistent and politically charged, helped prompt the Competition Commission’s two‑year inquiry into data markets, which concluded in 2019.
The commission found that local data prices outpaced those in comparable economies and required operators, including Vodacom and MTN, the two biggest networks, to slash certain data tariffs. Both did so while respectfully disputing elements of the commission’s diagnosis.
What followed has been a quieter but more substantial reshaping of the mobile network landscape.
Telkom’s mobile business has expanded at a brisk pace, reporting more than 25-million subscribers in the third quarter ended December 2025.
Retailers, banks and digital‑first firms have launched their own Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), buying wholesale capacity and competing on price, flexibility and value rather than full network ownership.
Dual‑SIM phones have made it effortless for consumers to switch between networks, weakening the traditional hold of incumbents. Competition has finally deepened, though in ways that place greater pressure on underlying economics.
Competitive gains must be supported by regulatory predictability. Licence-renewal frameworks, spectrum certainty, infrastructure-sharing rules and compliance audits all shape long-term capital planning. Investment decisions in telecommunications are made over multi-year horizons. Sudden shifts in licensing conditions or prolonged uncertainty in renewal frameworks can materially affect network expansion, particularly in rural and underserved communities.
Industry bodies such as the Association of Comms and Technology (ACT) have consistently engaged regulators to ensure that affordability objectives are aligned with investment sustainability. The goal is not deregulation but ensuring that competition law, telecommunications regulation and transformation policy reinforce rather than contradict one another.
The Competition Commission’s 2025 Cost of Living Report set out the scale of inflationary pressures. Over five years, general inflation rose 28 percent. Education costs climbed 35 percent. Water tariffs increased by 50 percent and electricity tariffs by more than 68 percent.
Mobile data prices, by contrast, rose by only one percent in nominal terms. Once adjusted for inflation, data has become cheaper every year since the sizeable price drops implemented in 2020. Icasa, the telecommunications sector regulator, observed that operators continued to reduce prices across several bundles in 2025.
For households facing steadily rising costs, stable data prices offer rare relief. Yet the durability of this trend depends on the economic realities beneath it.
Despite the digital glow of the industry, mobile networks remain grounded in physical infrastructure. Data traffic continued to grow exponentially, driven largely by high-bandwidth applications by over-the-top (OTT) such as video streaming, cloud services and social media platforms. This widening gap between traffic growth and revenue growth increases network load while compressing returns, placing pressure on future investment capacity.
Towers must be constructed, secured and powered. Fibre backhaul must be built and upgraded. Spectrum must be licensed and often at considerable cost. Backup systems must be reinforced to energy disruptions, and sites must be protected in a country where vandalism and power instability have become routine. These needs demand continual capital expenditure.
Globally too, operators face tightening margins. Research by the Boston Consulting Group indicates that since 2024, many telecom operators have seen their returns narrow relative to their cost of capital. This suggests not a crisis, but a gradually tightening investment environment for the sector globally.
From ACT’s perspective, the question is not whether affordability matters because it unquestionably does. The deeper question is how South Africa structures its regulatory, competition and transformation frameworks to sustain long-term network investment while preserving competitive intensity.
Like their international counterparts, South African operators are experiencing similar pressures, navigating rising operating costs in an environment where raising prices is politically sensitive and consumers readily switch providers.
South Africa treats digital access as a public good, and rightly so. Affordable connectivity is indispensable for education, commerce and civic participation. Preserving affordability is therefore a legitimate and necessary policy goal. But it must be supported by an investment climate that ensures operators can sustain and modernise their networks.
Mobile operators have shown resilience. They continue to expand capacity, modernise infrastructure and maintain service quality despite power instability, security costs and competitive strain. These investments are undertaken alongside binding license obligations that require extensive rollout to underserved communities and the connection of more than 21,000 public service institutions at no cost to beneficiaries. Collectively, these commitments constitute a significant long-term capital undertaking that directly advances South Africa’s digital inclusion and national development objectives.
Nonetheless, long‑term sustainability requires returns that justify continuous reinvestment. A sector permanently held in a low‑price equilibrium may, over time, slow upgrades not because of unwillingness but because the economics leave little room for further capital outlay.
Rather than framing affordability and sustainability as competing objectives, South Africa’s policy and law-makers may need to view them as complementary. A well‑balanced market can support both, provided regulation, pricing expectations and investment incentives are all aligned.
South Africa has benefited from a period of declining real data prices and intensifying competition. The challenge now is to preserve these gains without weakening operators’ ability to build and maintain robust networks and invest in innovative technologies.
The outlook for a competitive and innovative environment remains encouraging. With thoughtful regulatory design, incremental consolidation where it promotes efficiency and prudent stewardship by operators, the sector can balance the need for affordability for consumers with investability by capital providers. Achieving this balance will be essential if South Africa is to enjoy not only affordable connectivity today, but reliable and high-quality connectivity long into the future.
From ACT’s perspective, the question is not whether affordability matters because it unquestionably does. The deeper question is how South Africa structures its regulatory, competition and transformation frameworks to sustain long-term network investment while preserving competitive intensity.
The country has achieved real price declines and expanded consumer choice. The next phase requires policy calibration: ensuring that affordability today does not inadvertently constrain the infrastructure investment required for tomorrow.
Batyi is the CEO of the Association of Comms and Technology (ACT), which represents key players in the telecommunications, technical and communications industry
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