{"id":44814,"date":"2026-09-07T10:10:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T08:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=44814"},"modified":"2026-09-07T10:10:54","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T08:10:54","slug":"sa-regulator-steps-up-scrutiny-over-connectivity-costs","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-regulator-steps-up-scrutiny-over-connectivity-costs\/","title":{"rendered":"SA regulator steps up scrutiny over connectivity costs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa\u2019s (SA) communications regulator is stepping up scrutiny of major telecommunications companies and digital platforms over the cost of connectivity.<\/p>\n<p>Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) is examining MTN, Vodacom, Telkom and Cell C, as well as platforms including Netflix and WhatsApp, amid concerns that consumers have not seen the expected benefits from additional spectrum being made available.<\/p>\n<p>SA has released additional spectrum in an effort to improve competition and ultimately bring down the cost of data and digital services.<\/p>\n<p>But with consumers still facing relatively high connectivity costs, ICASA is intensifying its examination of both traditional telecoms operators and major digital platforms.<\/p>\n<p>The regulator\u2019s focus includes whether competition in the market is strong enough and whether the benefits of increased network capacity are reaching consumers through lower prices.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014ChannelAfrica\/InnocentSemosa\u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15418,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-44814","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"SA has released additional spectrum in an effort to improve competition and ultimately bring down the cost of data and digital services.","published_date":"","news_description":"SA has released additional spectrum in an effort to improve competition and ultimately bring down the cost of data and digital services.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44815,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44814\/revisions\/44815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=44814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}