Cost of missing the data boat is high

DEAR SIR — I heard a line so profound: “Those of us who missed out on the Industrial Revolution ended up getting colonised.”

From about 1760, new manufacturing processes provided European kingdoms with the material muscle they needed to dominate the globe. Resistance was futile when burning one invading ship resulted in 10 more replacing it.

So, here we are, just emerging from colonialism when we find the world in the throes of another geopolitically defining revolution that is, once again, passing us by.

The data revolution is powered by bits and bytes of data delivered via fixed line or mobile that are needed to build the applications that run the modern economy.

The hundreds of thousands of apps in existence, and the thousands that are being designed by smart developers each day, are the cogs in the digital economy.

The price of data directly influences how many apps I will use today and my efficiency or competitiveness in the digital economy. When my cellphone asks me to download the latest version of the mobile e-mail software that enables me to be more productive, and I cancel that update because it is tens of megabytes that in SA cost a fortune, that behaviour hurts my career and the economy.

The fact that 10 gigabytes of mobile data in Tanzania is at least 10 times cheaper than in Africa’s “most advanced” economy is unfortunate, to say the least. What happened to economies of scale? Do the laws of economics not apply to the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) that delivers data to our mobile phones?

Millions of South Africans are scaling back their consumption of data and engaging in absurd, counterintuitive economic behaviour like opting to work on out-of-date digital tools because the latest versions would be deleterious to their bank accounts.

The cost of data must fall for SA to be competitive and to start seriously tackling the digital divide.