South Africa Cracks Down on Mobile Market Abuse

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has updated the Electronic Communications Act to prevent mobile retail market power abuse. This change means major mobile network operators (MNOs) like MTN and Vodacom must now share all confidential financial records and documents with the regulator.

ICASA announced these changes in a government gazette on July 5, 2024, after receiving feedback from major players such as MTN, Vodacom, Telkom, Cell C, and the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA).

“These regulations are called the Mobile Broadband Services Amendment Regulations 2024 and will come into force upon publication in the Government Gazette,” ICASA stated.

Previously, regulations from March 31, 2022, required MNOs with significant market power (SMP) to publish detailed reports on retail prices, data revenue, tariffs, and wholesale prices on their websites. This included confidential information.

The new amendment removes this requirement, so MNOs no longer need to publish confidential details online. However, they must still provide non-confidential reports to the public and share confidential ones with ICASA every quarter.

MTN, Telkom, Vodacom, and the ISPA supported this change, but Cell C opposed it. Despite the disagreement, ICASA decided to remove the regulation. “We stand by our decision to delete regulation 7(e) as no licensee with significant market power was found in the APN and MVNO service markets,” ICASA stated.

Another proposed change was to eliminate clauses 7(f) and 7(g), which regulated wholesale prices to MVNOs and APNs. Clause 7(f) required operators with SMP to explain any retail price below wholesale price and provide evidence to the authority. Clause 7(g) allowed ICASA to monitor prices to prevent margin squeeze.

MTN and Vodacom supported removing these clauses, while Cell C, ISPA, and Telkom did not. ICASA chose to keep clause 7(f) but removed clause 7(g).