The Competition Commission's proposed shake-up of the data market may only dent the short-term revenues of Vodacom and MTN, which have been given an ultimatum to drop prices or face prosecution. The commission's report on its two-year inquiry into why data prices are so high, which was released on Monday, was hailed as a victory for consumers but drew criticism from the telecoms operators and industry analysts.Analysts said price cuts would let consumers get more data for their rand, but were unlikely to result in higher overall spending. This would mean lower short-term revenues for the network operators, whose shares on the JSE dropped when the report was released.Dobek Pater, a director at Africa Analysis, says: "Investors will [still] be interested in the large operators as data is only a single component of their future revenue bouquet, although a significant one." Pater says the operators have in any case indicated their intention to reduce capital expendi...
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