SIMPHIWE Nyanda, Minister of Communications, promised to drive broadband and telephone costs down.
Speaking after his budget vote speech to Parliament yesterday, Nyanda said South Africa might yet need a third fixed-line telephone operator to boost competition.
"The cost of telephony is still high. We have not made effective interventions," he said.
Nyanda reaffirmed his plan to appoint an independent technical panel to find out why prices were not falling in response to previous interventions.
Development policies over the past 10 years have routinely cited communications costs as a barrier to growth, but have failed to make a significant impact.
Nyanda said he was concerned that operators would not pass on reductions in their input costs to consumers.