The South African Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies has introduced the Electronic Communications Amendment Bill (the "Bill") in the National Assembly. The Bill proposes significant amendments to the Electronic Communications Act, 2005 (Act No. 36 of 2005) (the "Act"), with the stated aim of promoting competition, reducing the cost to communicate and accelerating the deployment of electronic communications infrastructure across South Africa. The Bill follows recommendations made by the Competition Commission in its Data Services Market Inquiry report of 2 December 2019, which identified various issues in the market for data services, including high data prices resulting from a failure to promote competition.
