{"id":180288,"date":"2016-09-20T17:09:26","date_gmt":"2016-09-20T15:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=180288"},"modified":"2016-09-20T17:12:02","modified_gmt":"2016-09-20T15:12:02","slug":"data-and-airtime-prices-must-fall-datamustfall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/180288-data-and-airtime-prices-must-fall-datamustfall.html","title":{"rendered":"Data and airtime prices must fall &#8211; #DataMustFall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Right2Know Campaign said the high price\u00a0of data and airtime is stifling South Africans\u2019 right to communicate.<\/p>\n<p>R2K said it supports the <a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/179782-datamustfall-campaign-against-mobile-data-rip-off.html\"><strong>#DataMustFall campaign<\/strong><\/a>, adding that it is central to achieving freedom of expression and media freedom for South Africans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToo many ordinary South Africans are deprived of their right to receive and impart information because of rip-off airtime and data costs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It said the &#8220;ruthless profiteering&#8221; of telecoms companies, particularly MTN and Vodacom, entrenches inequality in\u00a0the country.<\/p>\n<p>To bring down the price\u00a0of airtime and data, Right2Know suggested the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>ICASA must become more independent and rein in telecoms companies.<\/li>\n<li>Digital spectrum must\u00a0be used for the public interest, including the delivery of free public Wi-Fi. It should not be auctioned off to the highest bidder.<\/li>\n<li>Greater community participation in governance and management in telecoms infrastructure.<\/li>\n<li>South Africans must\u00a0rally and mobilise for their right to communicate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cThe big telecoms companies have been given too much power to trample over the rights of consumers, avoid paying taxes, and make huge profits.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on data prices<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/179782-datamustfall-campaign-against-mobile-data-rip-off.html\"><strong>#DataMustFall campaign against mobile data rip-off<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Right2Know Campaign said the high price of data and airtime is stifling South Africans\u2019 right to communicate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":152979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[36,38954,36872],"class_list":["post-180288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-active","tag-data-prices","tag-right2know-r2k"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180288"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180288"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180290,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180288\/revisions\/180290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}