--- title: Rural South Africans should not have to trade... description: South Africa's largest telecom operators, under the Association of Comms & Technology, are seeking a five-year exemption from the Competition Act to jointly... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/rural-south-africans-should-not-have-to-trade-competition-for-coverage-z9sf8uew5 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Rural South Africans should not have to trade competition for coverage | daily.dev og:description: South Africa's largest telecom operators, under the Association of Comms & Technology, are seeking a five-year exemption from the Competition Act to jointly... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/rural-south-africans-should-not-have-to-trade-competition-for-coverage-z9sf8uew5 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Z9Sf8ueW5.png og:image:alt: Rural South Africans should not have to trade competition for coverage og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Rural South Africans should not have to trade competition for coverage **[TechCentral](https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary South Africa's largest telecom operators, under the Association of Comms & Technology, are seeking a five-year exemption from the Competition Act to jointly plan rural network infrastructure builds, arguing this would reduce duplication and extend coverage to underserved areas. The author, representing a wireless ISP trade body, argues against granting the exemption, contending that coordinated planning among the six major operators would let the first mover become the de facto monopoly in thin rural markets, removing the customer-switching pressure that keeps prices and service quality in check. He cites the Competition Commission's own findings that mobile data pricing is structurally 'anti-poor' and Icasa data showing only about 20% of government facilities under existing spectrum obligations were connected by October 2025, questioning why a new unmonitored promise would fare better. He calls for the exemption to be refused, or at minimum conditioned on open wholesale access, enforceable service levels, affordable retail options and real penalties. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Telecoms operators warn of waste and duplication without legal reform](https://daily.dev/posts/telecoms-operators-warn-of-waste-and-duplication-without-legal-reform-qgjow7nol) · TechCentral · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [‘Construction mafia and spies’: alarm over new Icasa rules](https://daily.dev/posts/construction-mafia-and-spies-alarm-over-new-icasa-rules-odihs9vtq) · TechCentral · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Industry to Icasa: punish municipalities that stall network roll-out](https://daily.dev/posts/industry-to-icasa-punish-municipalities-that-stall-network-roll-out-wwrvkrlez) · TechCentral · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#regulation](https://daily.dev/tags/regulation) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/rural-south-africans-should-not-have-to-trade-competition-for-coverage-z9sf8uew5) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Rural South Africans should not have to trade competition for coverage","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/rural-south-africans-should-not-have-to-trade-competition-for-coverage-z9sf8uew5","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/rural-south-africans-should-not-have-to-trade-competition-for-coverage-z9sf8uew5"},"datePublished":"2026-09-03T11:20:45.584Z","dateModified":"2026-09-03T11:27:32.788Z","description":"South Africa's largest telecom operators, under the Association of Comms & Technology, are seeking a five-year exemption from the Competition Act to jointly...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/b5b7ccb9d0f6dd38d57f0d8bc5a447a8?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/b5b7ccb9d0f6dd38d57f0d8bc5a447a8?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"TechCentral","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TechCentral","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--RsqLDZrL--/f_auto/v1717745297/logos/techcentral","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/rural-south-africans-should-not-have-to-trade-competition-for-coverage-z9sf8uew5","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"regulation","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TechCentral","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Rural South Africans should not have to trade competition for coverage"}]} ```