Icasa, South Africa’s communications regulator, has published a notice in the Government Gazette announcing a market inquiry into the affordability of voice and broadband services. The notice, signed by chairman Mothibi Ramusi, flags persistent cost pressures for low-income households, rural communities, young people and informal-sector workers. For small businesses that rely on cheap data to run point-of-sale systems or reach customers online, the outcome could affect operating costs.
The inquiry is an evidence-based assessment. Icasa will identify structural cost drivers, gauge the impact on household budgets and consider whether regulatory or market interventions are needed. The regulator will post a questionnaire on its website; stakeholders have ten working days to seek clarification, another ten days for Icasa to respond, then forty-five days to answer the questionnaire. A discussion document follows, open for public comment for a further forty-five days, before any public hearings can be scheduled. Counting working days and the December break, written responses are unlikely before the new year, and any findings will not appear before 2027.
The move revisits promises made after the 2022 spectrum auction. That auction raised R14.4-billion for the fiscus, well above the R8-billion the regulator had projected, and was marketed as a catalyst for cheaper consumer prices. However, Icasa’s own State of the ICT Sector report in March showed that of the 21 878 government facilities required to connect under licence conditions, only 4 377 had been linked by October 2025, roughly 20 per cent. The same report put 5G population coverage at 58 per cent nationally but as low as 7 per cent in rural parts of the Eastern Cape, and noted that entry-level smartphones have fallen to R399, removing devices as the main barrier and leaving price as the key obstacle.
South Africa has a history of investigations into telecom pricing. The Competition Commission’s data services market inquiry, launched in 2017 and reported in 2019, concluded that mobile data pricing was structurally anti-poor and prompted price cuts on entry-level bundles. Icasa itself ran a priority markets inquiry and a mobile broadband services inquiry, publishing a discussion document in 2019 that found retail mobile markets insufficiently competitive and site access highly concentrated. In August, the Department of Communications & Digital Technologies issued a tender for its own market analysis, asking why previous interventions have not delivered affordable voice and data.
Price trends show mixed progress. Prepaid customers paying R100 for a gigabyte in 2020 were paying about R79 by 2025, while a 5GB post-paid bundle fell from R199 to R99 over the same period. Yet on International Telecommunication Union price brackets, South Africa’s blended average of roughly R20.50 per gigabyte sits below the global average but remains higher than 27 other African countries. For small enterprises, even modest data costs can erode margins, especially when operating on thin profit lines.
At the same time Icasa is defending its latest consumer intervention in court. Both MTN and Vodacom have challenged the amended end-user and subscriber service charter regulations gazetted in January, which require operators to roll over unused data at least once and to stop applying out-of-bundle rates without explicit consent. The operators argue the regulator exceeded its powers, failed to assess the economic impact and consulted inadequately. The rules are set to take effect on 23 January 2027, making the outcome of the court case another variable that could shape the inquiry’s recommendations.
Communications minister Solly Malatsi has placed cost-to-communicate at the top of his department’s agenda, backing municipal red-tape reform and telling parliament in May that faster and cheaper internet was the central objective of his R2.55-billion budget. While the minister’s budgetary push aligns with Icasa’s inquiry, the regulator’s process is independent and will focus on data rather than fiscal allocations.
For SMEs, the practical takeaway is to monitor the inquiry’s timeline and prepare to submit evidence or comments during the public consultation phases. Demonstrating how current pricing structures affect business operations, from inventory management to digital marketing, could influence any regulatory adjustments that follow. Even if the final report arrives after the next financial year, early engagement may help shape a more affordable telecom environment.
According to the regulator’s notice, the purpose of the inquiry is to determine whether the 2022 spectrum auction delivered any benefit to consumers’ pockets. The outcome could lead to new pricing guidelines, revised licence obligations or further pro-competitive measures. Until then, small businesses should keep an eye on the evolving regulatory landscape and consider contingency plans for data costs.
