POLOKWANE – All mobile phone users know the struggle when it comes to data usage in South Africa.
With campaigns such as #DataMustFall reaching its peak, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) investigated concerns about the data expiry and out-of-bundle data rules, which were perceived to be prejudicial to consumers, in particular the poor.
Read more: Tech Thursday: Why is your data disappearing?
Icasa says that while they understand that consumers are worried about the amount of money they spend on data, the review of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Regulations of 2016 does not seek to directly or indirectly regulate the price of data services.
Here’s what you need to know:
- Service providers must notify users when their data falls below 50%, 80% and 100%. ICASA says this will help consumers monitor their usage and control their spending.
- Service providers must give users the option to rollover unused data to the next month. This is to ensure that consumers do not lose unused data as is the current practice
- All network providers must allow consumers to transfer data to other users on the same network.
- Service providers are no longer allowed to charge consumers out-of-bundle rates when data has run out, without the consumers’ consent.
Icasa also ruled on new time frames for the expiry of data bundles, with the shortest being 10 days for bundles between 1MB and 50MB, and the longest being 24 months for 20GB;
Service providers will be given a month to comply after the regulations are published and gazetted on Monday, 30 April 2018.
