Massive MTN price hikes: how much extra you will pay

MagicDude4Eva said:
No-one else thinks that a monthly 1GB data bundle for R160 is obscene (never mind R25 for 50MB). Cellular providers are easily making 80% pure profit on data alone (considering that whole-sale international bandwidth goes for less than R1/GB and with peering-agreements in place, local data should actually be zero rated).
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The fleecing continues.
 
Smells like a case is brewing for the competition commission. Clear as daylight collusion between the "Big 3" of the cellphone industry.
 
So mtn is spending more on diesel just like eskom? Can we anticipate a prise reduction when the oil price drops?
 
Ho3n3r said:
Smells like a case is brewing for the competition commission. Clear as daylight collusion between the "Big 3" of the cellphone industry.
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This would be an interesting case. Assuming it is "tacit collusion) (which seems more likely), it would be difficult to prove as is no record of discussions if there weren't any. It's done by market 'signals' which could be interpreted in many ways, especially if the increase is just a one-off (as in this case) and not a pattern of behaviour. The fact that 3 of the operators increased in a short period could be ascribed to specific conditions (load shedding, ICASA radical MTR cuts), rather than collusion.
 
So where are the people who said MTN chose to lay off workers instead of raising prices now?

MagicDude4Eva said:
No-one else thinks that a monthly 1GB data bundle for R160 is obscene (never mind R25 for 50MB). Cellular providers are easily making 80% pure profit on data alone (considering that whole-sale international bandwidth goes for less than R1/GB and with peering-agreements in place, local data should actually be zero rated).
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They don't pay for links in per GB as we do but in per Mb per second.
 
Chris.Geerdts said:
This would be an interesting case. Assuming it is "tacit collusion) (which seems more likely), it would be difficult to prove as is no record of discussions if there weren't any. It's done by market 'signals' which could be interpreted in many ways, especially if the increase is just a one-off (as in this case) and not a pattern of behaviour. The fact that 3 of the operators increased in a short period could be ascribed to specific conditions (load shedding, ICASA radical MTR cuts), rather than collusion.
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I can't see a case surviving initial investigation by the competition commission as you have each actor acting against concert so the tragedy of commons is a product of "market failure" rather than collusion. The heart of the problem is regulatory. A question of the current "costs to communicate" programme of both Parliament and ICASA is begging to be asked as is the glut that we are seeing with spectrum - Vodacom is pretty much on record as saying price increases would be wholly unnecessary if the spectrum bottleneck is resolved. Any premise of collusion would collapse if a single player were to reverse their position due to concluding the changes are legally impermissible
 
I sure hope Telkom Mobile will not follow suit. Good to be on prepaid atm
 
I hope this won't affect the downward trend of data between TM and Cell C.
 
Swa said:
So where are the people who said MTN chose to lay off workers instead of raising prices now?


They don't pay for links in per GB as we do but in per Mb per second.
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I know, but I have never been able to get actual figures from anyone regarding the cost of the links and the saturation. So the best I have ever been able to get to is to find how much the big ISPs would charge out at wholesale rates (i.e. below R1/GB for usage over 10TB international traffic) - with this figure in hand you can then clearly see that if a hosting provider charges around R1/GB, and a cellular provider charges in excess of R150/GB that there is something inherently wrong.

I agree, that cellular providers have additional overheads, such as cellular towers and bigger transmission networks, but surely it can not be that much that more than R100/GB is charged.
 
Meh, doubt I'll even notice the increase. Also as for their data prices, as someone said just use Afrihost. I have been for a while now and the data is much cheaper that way.
 
This just does not feel right....

*puts on tin foil hat*

im thinking this is collusion from the service providers, maybe they will be found out in 10 years, get a massive fine, but consumers are still being shafted.

*takes off tin foil hat*

Also mid contract price hikes.....CPA anyone?! Whats the purpose of signing a contract if the terms can be changed at any time?
 
So contract prices and bundles have gone up. What about call rates?

Seems strange that they can justify the increase on contracts and bundles, but the core which is calls has not changed? Am i missing something?
 
everybody is complaining, so where is everyone going to port to? lol
 
Got 1 month left then goodbye to contract. Wife got 2 months left.
 
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