Vodacom, MTN must reduce prices by 50% and give users free data

[Swa]

Yeah choice is a bad thing. Image having to choose between a 100 networks. Obviously people need the government to pick 1 or 2 for them.

That's just such a fscking ridiculous strawman.

It's not a straw man. You can't support 100 networks with the available spectrum. So you either have to (heaven forbid the world will come to an end) give everyone a limited area or pick how many can be supported. Besides if it's a free for all you'll have rogue operators using the same spectrum and spoiling it for everybody.

 

[rietrot]

It's not a straw man. You can't support 100 networks with the available spectrum. So you either have to (heaven forbid the world will come to an end) give everyone a limited area or pick how many can be supported. Besides if it's a free for all you'll have rogue operators using the same spectrum and spoiling it for everybody.

No you (as the government) don't have to do anything. It's simple. All that the government needs to do is find a way to formalise spectrum into usable quantities, sell everthing they still have in a open auction and step away.

 

[Swa]

No you (as the government) don't have to do anything. It's simple. All that the government needs to do is find a way to formalise spectrum into usable quantities, sell everthing they still have in a open auction and step away.

That implies it HAS TO BE REGULATED. If not then it doesn't matter if they sell it as everyone will use what they want in any case.

 

[Geoff.D]

This thread should not be dominated by discussions about spectrum regulation. It is about economics of operating mobile networks and service pricing.

Spectrum HAS TO BE regulated by International Agreement, end of story.
It is in the very first instance an issue about interference, especially between countries. The technical rules are set.
After that, it is about how many networks can be supported in the same geographical area using the same technologies or even different technologies without causing undue interference between them.
And that IS driven by how many services and users can be supported in total in a specific band
And THEN one can start arguing about how many competing operators will be able to economically operate in a band.
As SWA has pointed out already the average is about 3 operators with the minimum being 1, and the maximum being 7-8.
Now in our market, we have only a handful of operators operating in the same bands (2 dominant, plus 2 limping along).

 

[NoFear]

If companies resort to predatory pricing practices over years and years, no one should be surprised when governments step in and take action. Long overdue that mobile data pricing returns to a cost related basis and that companies prove their case when required to do so.

If there is a case to be made for a higher price for prepaid versus post paid then prove it.

If their is a cost difference between managing smaller packages compared to larger packages, then prove it.

The noise the operators are making is precisely because they probably cannot and will never be able to do so.

And it has nothing to do with Communism either.

And it will be even harder to make the case based on normal supply and demand principals.
No, the only conclusion that can be drawn is corporate greed.

Being in South Africa it has everything to do with communism, remember, the government wants end to end control of everything, even wants to tell your kid / kids what jobs they are going to do one day.

The easiest way to make a case is on basic principles of economics. If you cant afford it, you don't get it. TINSTAAFL.