South Africans paying for internet have received a measure of relief in the Competition Commission’s second Cost of Living Report, which found that both wired and wireless internet price increases remained below overall inflation. The report, released on 1 April 2026, says that from April 2025 to January 2026, wired internet inflation stayed just below 15% and below headline inflation, while wireless internet prices rose slightly in May 2025 before stabilising for the rest of the year at around 2%.
That matters because the Commission treats internet access as an essential household service rather than a discretionary extra. In the report, it says affordable data is a critical part of economic and social participation in South Africa as more services move online, including education, job applications, banking, government services and small business activity.
The stronger and more accurate angle here is not that internet has suddenly become cheap. The official finding is narrower. Internet price inflation has been more contained than many other cost-of-living pressures, but the overall cost of data is still high enough for the Commission to say South Africa has room to reduce prices further. It notes that the country ranked 31st out of 45 African countries for a monthly 1GB mobile data package in the second quarter of 2025.
What we know so far
The fresh development is the release of the Competition Commission’s second Cost of Living Report. The Commission says the report uses Statistics South Africa CPI data from 2020 to January 2026, with this edition focusing on the period from April 2025 to January 2026. It tracks the cost of essential food and non-food items for low-income households, including internet usage costs.
In the internet section of the report, the Commission says the cumulative internet usage cost picture has been more stable than the broader inflation environment. Its wording is notably positive compared with categories such as electricity, water, healthcare and education. It says both wired and wireless internet prices continue to remain below overall inflation, even while broader household pressures remain entrenched.
That is meaningful in the current South African context. In the same media statement, the Commission said many essentials remain expensive even as inflation eases, and highlighted steep increases in electricity and water prices since 2020. Against that backdrop, internet is one of the few essential categories where the latest official review points to relatively contained price growth rather than a major new affordability shock.
Why it matters
For households, slower internet price inflation can make a practical difference because connectivity is no longer peripheral to daily life. The Commission explicitly links affordable internet access to participation in work, education, public services and the digital economy. That makes internet costs more comparable to other basic services than to optional consumer spending.
There is also a regulatory reason this matters. In January 2026, ICASA published amendments to the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter regulations that will strengthen protections for data, voice and SMS users. The new rules require usage depletion notifications at 50%, 80% and 100%, block out-of-bundle charging unless a customer has opted in, and require unused bundles of more than seven days to roll over at least once automatically and at no cost, provided the number remains active.
Those regulations are not yet in force. The gazetted text says they will come into effect 12 months after publication, while Parliament’s communications committee said that means 23 January 2027. In other words, the current good news for internet users is twofold: recent internet price inflation has stayed below headline inflation, and stronger consumer protections are already on the books even though consumers still have to wait for implementation.
Key details and figures
The key figures in this story come directly from the Competition Commission’s March 2026 report. From April 2025 to January 2026, wired internet inflation remained just below 15% and below headline inflation. Wireless internet prices increased slightly in May 2025 and then stabilised for the rest of the year at around 2%. The report says this is encouraging, but adds that South Africa still has room to lower data prices and points to the country’s 31st-place ranking out of 45 African countries for a monthly 1GB package in Q2 2025.
The regulatory figures are just as important. ICASA’s amended charter rules require depletion notifications at 50%, 80% and 100% of bundle use. They also require at least one rollover of unused eligible bundles, sequential use of older bundles first, and the ability to transfer bundles on the same network. The regulations say commencement will be 12 months after publication in the Government Gazette.
Taken together, those details support a more precise conclusion than the background headline alone. South Africa is not seeing a dramatic collapse in internet prices. Instead, the current official evidence shows a relatively stable pricing trend compared with wider inflation, plus a regulatory framework that should reduce waste and bill shock once it takes effect.
What happens next
The next important date is January 2027, when ICASA’s amended consumer rules are due to start applying. That should matter most to prepaid users who have long lost unused data, voice and SMS bundles to expiry. Parliament has already described the amendments as a meaningful step in reducing cost-of-living pressure in the communications sector, especially for prepaid subscribers.
Before then, the main takeaway from the Commission’s report is that internet has not become immune to affordability concerns, but it has performed better than many other household cost categories. For South African internet users, that is the real good news in the current data: connectivity costs have remained more restrained than headline inflation, and the next round of consumer protections is already scheduled.
