Under the agreement, which is subject to confirmation by the Competition Tribunal, Vodacom committed to a two-year substantial reduction of monthly data bundles across the board, Competition Commission head Tembinkosi Bonakele told a news conference also attended by Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub as well as trade, industry and competition minister Ebrahim Patel.

"For an example, the key 1GB monthly data bundle will drop from R149 per 1 Gigabyte to no more than R99," Bonakele said. "This represents a 34 percent price decrease."

From April, Vodacom, which already zero-rates data costs for government websites, will expand this to all public universities, technical and vocational educational training colleges as well as all public schools across the country. 

It will also provide a full zero-rated Internet search function powered by online encyclopedia Wikipedia, allowing consumers to search the website free of charge.

Last December the Competition Commission released findings of a probe initiated in 2017 after a sustained public outcry, which confirmed that South Africa’s data prices were too high, relative to the rest of the continent.

On Tuesday Joosub said Vodacom had decided, after release of the December report, to engage constructively with the Commission on the issues raised.

"The agreement struck with the Commission provides us with an opportunity to enter into a social contract with the regulators, our customers and the people of South Africa to bring down the cost to communicate and promote digital inclusion," he said.

Vodacom had made the agreement on the understanding that the government and regulator Independent Communications Authority of South would take action to auction high demand spectrum, Joosub added.

"Delays in assigning spectrum and completing the digital migration has curbed the pace at which data prices could have fallen,” he said.

The Competition Commission is one of three independent statutory bodies established in terms of South Africa's Competition Act to regulate competition between companies in the market.

The other bodies are the Competition Tribunal and the Competition Appeal Court (CAC). The Commission is the investigating and prosecuting agency, while the Tribunal is the court. The CAC hears appeals against decisions of the Tribunal. 

African News Agency