Nyakallo Tefu
Good news for Vodacom customers as they will be paying 30% less for data bundles from April 1 2020.
Following demands made by the Competition Commission in December 2019, the mobile operator has agreed to slash its prices and provide free internet access to the poor.
The minister of trade and industry, Ebrahim Patel said Vodacom has also agreed to decrease its bundle prices in April next year, which will mean more than a 40% price reduction.
Its 1GB monthly bundle will go from R149 to “no more than” R99, a 34% reduction, from April 1 this year.
Vodacom group CEO Shameel Joosub said this forms part of a broader Vodacom group programme to create a social contract with its stakeholders that will address pressing societal challenges in each of the markets in which it operates.
This decision comes in the wake of marches against Data prices in South Africa and two years of investigations by the Competition Commission, which released its data market inquiry report in December 2019.
The final report of the investigation stated that MTN and Vodacom had to independently reach an agreement with the regulator on substantially reducing data prices within two months of the release of the report.
MTN clients are waiting in bated breathe to hear what their network will do following the results of the investigation.
