With the current #DataMustFall movement headlining most social media posts and highlighting the high costs of communication and data in South Africa, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) this week said that data pricing is falling year-on-year.

It reports that there has been a downward trend in data tariffs lodged and charged by operators to consumers, despite a lack of specific regulatory intervention in the data market.

“The trends over the past five years indicate that average prices for data are now at least 45% cheaper than they were in 2010. This, however, is not to say that the concerns raised by civil society groups and consumers around the high costs are unfounded,” the authority said in a statement.

While a specific framework to regulate data pricing is yet to be developed, Icasa assured that consumers were protected by regulations with which licensees must comply, including the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Regulations, which imposed extensive transparency obligations on licensees to ensure that consumers are well informed with regard to the rules applicable to their service consumption.

Icasa is also currently undertaking an analysis of the priority markets which may require regulatory intervention, with the proposed recommendations, in line with the prescripts of the law, to be announced by the end of the current financial year.

A particular area of concern to Icasa is the expiry of data bundles.

“The authority believes that this practice is to the prejudice of consumers . . . [and] is consulting with the National Consumer Commission to explore possible measures to deal with this practice in terms of the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act 2008,” Icasa noted.

The regulator’s statement comes after the Portfolio Committee on Telecommunications and Postal Services this week held a two-day hearing into mobile data costs.