In the ideal world, the broadcasting and telecommunications regulator, ICASA would have been the party responsible for bringing into the public domain the current debate regarding the exorbitant mobile telephony pricing in South Africa. Ultimately, the role of ICASA is to regulate the industry in the best interest of the consumer but it was not ICASA that first raised concern about the high prices the networks charge consumers, I read about this debate for the first time in a newspaper article penned by the Independent Democrat leader, Patricia de Lille. Now everyone has jumped on to the pricing bandwagon, including the CEO of Vodacom in a recent article he wrote in a Sunday newspaper wherein he tried to make an argument regarding why the pricing has been what it is. Interestingly the other two mobile players have been quite so far, one can only hope that silence simply means that all parties are working in the background to adjust the pricing in favour of the consumer. In my view the mobile telecommunications pricing issue may yet define the tenure of General Nyanda as Minister of Communications. I seem to sense that now the issue is out in the open, Government and ICASA are left with no choice but show the wiliness to resolve it, and fast.
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