The cost of telecommunications in South Africa has been a point of contention for about two decades.It’s a criticism that Big Telco has learnt to live with. Every now and then, a market survey or inquiry is launched with much fanfare but few tangible results.For the telecommunications companies, the costs of communication, particularly those of data, have reduced significantly.But critics have highlighted that while communication costs in South Africa have decreased over recent years, price drops remain uneven.Enter the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), which last week launched yet another inquiry into the cost of communication in South Africa.All things being equal, one would not be alarmed by its mooted inquiry — if it were the first of its kind. But the drum of reducing the cost of communication has been beaten for so long that it would appear the regulator and the government have run out of options — except to resort to the low-hanging fruit of surveys and inquiries.Consumers, and indeed the telecommunications industry, need certainty rather than being caught up in perpetual inquiries into costs.When Icasa auctioned high-demand spectrum in March 2022, raising R14.4bn for the national fiscus, the carrot dangled before expectant consumers was that this spectrum would lower network costs, improve coverage and force data prices down.The ball is in Icasa’s court to tell the nation why this has not been the case — as its proposed inquiry suggests.Interestingly, Icasa’s inquiry comes just weeks after the department of communications & digital technologies, led by Solly Malatsi, went to the market seeking experts to advise them on why previous government efforts had failed to lower voice and data prices for citizens.This smacks of outsourcing thinking to the private sector on a matter that the government should by now be on top of.The study launched by Malatsi is not the first of its kind. In 2008, under the tutelage of erstwhile communications minister Simphiwe Nyanda, the department commissioned an independent benchmark study to look at cost, quality, access and usage with comparative countries, namely Malaysia, India, Chile, Brazil and South Korea.The study confirmed that South Africa’s telecommunications prices are still high compared with those countries.That was 18 years ago — and here we are, staring at yet another independent study by the department and an inquiry by the regulator.These moves, while at face value, create an impression of a government intolerant of high telecommunications costs, are merely motion without movement.What is lacking is the decisiveness to deal with a problem the government has itself acknowledged for nearly two decades, as it has been hiding behind independent studies and recommendations from inquiries — that prices have remained out of reach for most.Missing from the debate are connectivity and underinvestment by mobile service providers in rural areas.It is thus encouraging that the mobile operators have approached the Competition Commission seeking to be exempted from certain antitrust constraints and be allowed to share information that could otherwise infringe the country’s antitrust laws.The reasons advanced by telecommunication companies — under the umbrella of the Association of Communications and Technology (ACT)— are that limited sharing of information is needed to deploy telecommunications infrastructure in qualifying rural, remote and underserved areas.At the centre of the application is passive telecommunications infrastructure, including towers, masts, ducts, shelters and related support facilities that form the physical backbone of mobile and broadband networks.Unlike active network infrastructure — which includes spectrum, radio equipment and customer-facing services — passive assets are often among the most expensive components to build in remote regions. Operators say that the cost of deploying separate facilities in low-density areas can make investment commercially unattractive, particularly where revenue potential is limited.The commission must give this application serious consideration but not give the industry a blank cheque. Like the cost of the communication debate, the government has to play a leading role and show decisiveness. Business Day