South Africa telecoms giant Vodacom slashes data costs by 30%

South Africa’s competition regulator announced Tuesday a deal with Vodacom to cut data costs by at least 30 percent after accusing the telecommunications giant of overcharging for internet connectivity.

The Competition Commission said Vodacom had agreed to a “substantial reduction of monthly data bundles”.

“Effective from 1 April 2020, price will come down by over 30 percent across all channels,” the commission said at a news conference in Pretoria.

The commission in December ordered the country’s top operators Vodacom and MTN to cut prices within two months or face prosecution after its investigations revealed they charged more for data services in South Africa than they did in other markets where they operated.

It concluded that the two operators were “actively engaged in exploitative price discrimination and partitioning strategies in order to push up margins and prices”.

Vodacom’s popular prepaid one gigabyte monthly bundle will drop 34 percent from 149 rand ($9.40, 8.30 euros) to 99 rand as a result of the agreement.