Telecommunications in South Africa : Enforcement of Competition

Telecommunications in South Africa is one example of the regulatory state, dating from the early 1990s and comprising the usual elements of commercial operators, ministers issuing periodic policies, a regulator, a competition authority, systems of appeal, and parliamentary oversight. Less conventionally, it has a number of state-owned operators, mostly with specific functions, introduced after liberalisation. Policy interventions, often issued without prior consultation or warning, have been framed without competition or economic analyses, directing commercial or state-owned operators to perform particular functions. Although the creation of a competitive market has been an objective since 1996, the principal assessments have been by the Competition Commission as part of its work on merger control and in investigation of complaints, rather than by the regulator. While the market for mobile telecommunications has grown enormously, it is dominated by two operators, largely the result of the failure by the regulator to support three later market entrants. One result has been that mobile broadband is too expensive for many citizens