PRICE DISCRIMINATION IN MOBILE DATA Indra de Lanerolle, director, jamlab, university of the witwatersrand, johannesburg indra.delanerolle@wits.ac.za
IZOLO MOBILE DIARIES RESEARCH SAMPLE Sample Quotas Dimension Categories Location Three wards in three provinces - 2 urban, 1 rural Age Younger (18-34) Older (35 and above) Gender Female Male Income Very low (<R355pm) Low (<R1,031) Higher income (>R1,031) Mobile Internet access on device No internet access on device English Literate Yes No https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitstream/handle/123456789/13348/RReport_LessConnected_FINAL.pdf
THE LESS CONNECTED CONSUME AIRTIME AND DATA IN VERY SMALL QUANTITIES Airtime Balances at time of interview (n=88) Airtime balance at time of interview (R) Number of cases No airtime 43 1c to R1 14 Between R1.01 and R5 18 Between R5.01–R10 6 Over R10 7
THE LESS CONNECTED CONSUME AIRTIME AND DATA IN VERY SMALL QUANTITIES Most recent airtime purchase (n=81) Amount (R) Number of cases R2 3 R5 21 R10 37 R11–20 11 R21–30 2 R31–40 2 R41–50 4 R51–100 1
THE LESS CONNECTED PAY A VERY HIGH POVERTY PREMIUM FOR MOBILE DATA Mobile Data vs Soap Powder 667 Price (Rands) - log scale 100 60 40 mobile data (per GB) 20 washing powder (per KG) 10 1 Smallest Biggest
THE LESS CONNECTED LIMIT THEIR EXPERIENCE ONLINE Applications used in diary period (n=25) Applications Number WhatsApp 23 Facebook 11 Google 3 Bluetooth 2 Instagram 2 Twitter 1 Email 1 SHAREit 1
THE FRUGAL AND FRAGILE CONNECTIONS OF THE LESS CONNECTED “ “I buy R12 data and then it can last for a month simply because most of the times [it’s] o ff . So I only open my data when I want to check messages or if maybe I want to send someone a message or maybe I’m checking someone’s whereabouts” “If I were to get more data, I would Google and check more hairstyles ... Maybe a person would come and say, ‘I want to do something’ ... like try something new... Then I know that ... I have my own di ff erent styles that I get from the web ... I would just Google the styles.” ‘Thandiwe’
THE FRUGAL AND FRAGILE CONNECTIONS OF THE LESS CONNECTED “ Xoliswa doesn’t buy data bundles, but uses her airtime online. She hasn’t been online for a while because her airtime has run out. She says it rarely lasts more than a week. It goes quickly. “I don’t have airtime and I don’t want to buy it again. It’s not nice to always be loading airtime. Your grant money would get finished soon.” ‘Xoliswa’
RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Regulate to limit the spread of pricing between small and large data bundles. 2. Regulate to limit the spread of pricing between contract and pre-paid customers. 3. Abolish ‘Out of Bundle’ pricing 4. Require operators to provide and publish data on volumes of purchases of data at their different bundle sizes and price points. 5. Develop new price and affordability indices that take account of sachet pricing and avoid measures of affordability that use average incomes.
Thank you For further information please contact indra.delanerolle@wits.ac.za
Recommend
More recommend
