As South Africa enters the festive season, the country is awash with special offers. Yet, beyond the corporate hype that usually accompanies this time of year, many are left with the deep-seated feeling that – in the ordinary course of events – they are being ripped off left, right and centre.
People are becoming angrier and angrier with the cost and quality of many services. From the banks to the bread cartels, from Eskom to the airlines and the pending e-tolling system, indications of excessive profit taking are rife.
But a special place is reserved in many peoples’ stores of resentment for the cell phone companies, and justifiably so. An increasing number see beyond the specials that allow you to ‘double your summer’ or ‘do mahala time all the time’ and recognise the fact that the basic costs are too high.
South Africans are being forced to spend disproportionate amounts of income on what has quickly become a household necessity. While spending on cell phones accounts for eight per cent of income at a national level, it accounts for 18 percent of income for the poorest.
Out of 47 countries, South Africa has the third highest spend on cell phones as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product. Perversely, the country has a high mobile penetration rate, but one of the lowest mobile usages compared to other peer countries.
Cell phone users are sick and tired of high costs, network disruptions, dropped calls, and inefficient call centres. They are fed up with voice and data bundles expiring when there is no technical need for them to. They are ‘gatvol’ with the companies boasting that they are rolling out Long Term Evolution or 4G networks, when many mobile Internet users don’t receive a proper 3G service, and are forced to rely on the antediluvian Edge technology.
Pricing has become so opaque that it’s become practically impossible for the ordinary consumer to decode what the true cost of the service is.
But what has become readily apparent is that the cell phone companies are profiteering at the expense of the poor, and have done so for some time now.