![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Smartphone_Vodacom.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe increased data usage comes after Vodacom slashed data prices on its network for two years running.<\/p>\n
That followed an agreement<\/a><\/strong> that the operator and rival MTN had reached with the Competition Commission to significantly reduce mobile data prices in South Africa.<\/p>\n In April 2020, Vodacom dropped the price of a 1GB prepaid monthly data bundle by 34% \u2014\u00a0 from R149 to R99 \u2014 in addition to slashing prices on several other bundles.<\/p>\n It followed up one year later with another reduction of 14% to R85 per 1GB bundle. Other bundles now offer up to 33% more data at the same price.<\/p>\n Vodacom and MTN implemented these price cuts with the understanding that government would soon release sought-after and long-delayed radio frequency spectrum.<\/p>\n Without saying it outright, operators like Vodacom and MTN indicated that the price cuts would only be sustainable if they receive additional spectrum.<\/p>\n Spectrum is the raw network capacity cellular networks use to wirelessly communicate between devices and towers.<\/p>\n While a proposed spectrum auction has been delayed again<\/b><\/a>,\u00a0Vodacom and its competitors have benefitted from the temporary spectrum allocated as an emergency measure during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n While Icasa planned to suspend access to that spectrum at the end of this month, it recently announced<\/strong><\/a> mobile networks would be able to reapply.<\/p>\n It will then be valid for seven months or three months after the end of South Africa’s national state of disaster, whichever comes first.<\/p>\n This will allow operators who feel they’ve missed out, like Rain<\/a><\/strong>, to try and get their hands on some of the temporary spectrum they didn’t apply for the first time round.<\/p>\n Vodacom and other mobile network operators have repeatedly emphasised that making mobile data more affordable will depend on the availability of extra radio frequency spectrum for South Africa’s telecommunications providers.<\/p>\n Following delays due to a court challenge from Telkom and MTN, Icasa aims to auction off some of the high-demand frequency spectrum in March 2022.<\/p>\n By then, the government plans to <\/strong>fully migrate<\/b><\/a>\u00a0all the country’s provinces from analogue television broadcasting to digital, which will open up valuable space in lower frequency bands.<\/p>\n The additional spectrum will make it possible for mobile network operators to improve their network quality and capacity.<\/p>\n However, these plans are under threat due to a court challenge from E-tv<\/a><\/strong>, which claims that many South Africans will be unable to access digital broadcasts when all analogue transmitters are switched off.<\/p>\n It, therefore, remains to be seen whether Icasa can auction off the low-frequency spectrum occupied by old analogue TV broadcasts together with unoccupied higher frequency bands next year.<\/p>\n This is how much data the average Vodacom smartphone customer consumes every month. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":390172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[18090,25559,74214,251,1361,41],"class_list":["post-422798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-independent-communications-authority-of-south-africa-icasa","tag-mobile-data-prices","tag-mobile-data-traffic","tag-radio-frequency-spectrum","tag-smartphones-2","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422798"}],"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\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":422812,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422798\/revisions\/422812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\nNow read: Vodacom early Black Friday deal \u2014\u00a0600GB for R299 per month<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"