By akademiotoelektronik, 15/02/2023

Groupement des Télécommunications disputes data from Cable.co.uk on the average price of gigabits in Madagascar

(Ecofin Agency) - Over the years, the telecoms regulator has been intractable when it comes to healthy competition on the Malagasy market. Today, he has succeeded in making data accessible to a large part of consumers. Although much remains to be done for universal access, the progress made is not negligible.

The Groupement des Télécommunications de Madagascar (GTM), formed by Orange, Airtel and the Telma group, contests the data contained in the report "Worldwide Mobile Data Pricing 2021: The cost of 1 GB of mobile data in 230 countries" by Cable.co.uk. In a correspondence sent on Wednesday, May 5 to the English company that wrote the report, he believes that the place occupied by the country among the ten markets in Africa where the average cost of gigabit (GB) mobile is the most expensive is erroneous. Or $5.14.

GTM asserts that the prices communicated by the global telecom services price comparator Cable.co.uk are not the current prices of the Malagasy market. In addition, there was no increase in the price of mobile gigabit between 2019 and 2021, indicates the group. In addition, market analysis shows that prices charged by all mobile network operators are lower than Cable.co.uk's 2021 average prices. The average cost of mobile gigabit in Madagascar is currently $2.60.

This is not the first time that the Cable.co.uk report has been challenged by African telecommunications players. In May 2020, it was Benin's Electronic Communications and Postal Regulatory Authority (Arcep) that rejected data that ranked the country among the last markets in Africa with an average mobile gigabit cost of 27.22 usd. Based on Decision No. 2018-266/ARCEP of November 19, 2018 regulating the prices of telecommunications services, the body maintained that the true average price was ten times less.

Given the real data of the national telecoms market, GTM believes that Madagascar should rather be among the countries offering the most affordable data rates on the continent.

Muriel Edjo

Also read:

08/05/2020 - Benin: Arcep refutes data from cable.co.uk's 2020 world ranking on the average cost of GB in the country