The Competition Commission on Monday said it had extended, by one month, the deadline handed to South African mobile operators to agree to several recommendations outlined in the ‘Final Findings and Recommendations of the Data Services Market Inquiry’ report.

Published in December, the commission’s report, following a lengthy data services market inquiry, identified a series of final immediate and intermediate recommendations to address the high cost of data across the value chain.

The report found that the combination of a highly concentrated market and a duopoly of the two leading operators result in excessively high data prices and that priced-based competition in the mobile markets is inadequate, with the retail mobile market remaining stubbornly concentrated, besides other findings.

The report directed the telecommunications groups to reduce data prices, particularly for monthly bundles, and to address the structure of data pricing, reducing the cost per MB for smaller sub-1 GB bundles relative to the 1 GB price.

In addition, operators are required to reach an agreement with the commission on other pro-poor measures, including free data and the zero rating of public benefit organisations, within three months.

“The commission has separately had productive engagements with the two [biggest] operators, Vodacom and MTN, as well as other affected mobile network operators with regards to the findings and recommendations,” the commission said in a statement.

With discussions with operators under way and at an “advanced stage”, the commission believes an extension will enable sufficient time to conclude the engagements.

The commission’s market inquiry into high data costs, started in August 2017, unpacked the general state of competition in data services, examined any features that prevent, distort or restrict competition and reviewed the cause of high data prices.