Communications minister Solly Malatsi has described the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s (ICASA’s) regulatory moves on mobile data expiry as a useful intervention to bring down the cost to communicate.
However, he believes the resultant legal deliberations are likely to take on a life of their own.
MTN and Vodacom have reportedly approached the courts to fight ICASA’s mobile data expiry regulations.
The telcos are seeking relief from ICASA’s updated End-user and Subscriber Service Charter Regulations, which govern data rollover, bundle depletion, and transfer of minutes and megabytes.
The reports state that the mobile operators want the rules to be reviewed, set aside and declared invalid, with ICASA cited as first respondent.
In an interview with ITWeb this week, Malatsi said the regulations, which become effective next year, are an “important” intervention in empowering consumers to receive full value for money.
“It seems some of the mobile network operators have already launched legal papers around that movement,” he stated.
“We live in a democratic society, so they can exercise their right. However, the reality is that every consumer needs to get full value for their money. In economic terms, it is the right thing to ensure there’s access to a product that you’ve purchased until you’ve utilised it completely. It’s a basic [right].”
At the start of the year, regulator ICASA amended a decade-old set of regulations, to “curb consumer exploitation through practices such as high out-of-bundle rates and inadequate rollover provisions for bundles”, explained SA Legal Academy policy watch.
Mobile operators have offered rollover since 2018 – but always on their terms. The January-gazetted amendment to the 2016 rules strip away those conditions. Operators can no longer require customers to buy new bundles to keep their data, limit which bundles qualify, or restrict how often unused units roll over.
The rules are set to become effective in January next year.
The minister said this forms part of broader moves within the ecosystem to boost internet access and remove “additional and unjust” costs that consumers bear.
“The ICASA regulations are useful, in terms of affordability. The truth is that we are still one of the countries with the highest data costs, which is an undeniable truth.
“The reality is that when you consider the country’s average disposable income per household, it reinforces the need. Engineers must say there are technical limitations around data rollover, etc. But at the end of the day, the simple dichotomy is: ‘If I purchase a data package, I want it to exist until I have depleted it through usage. And if I haven’t, I must continue to have access to it.’
“This is simple principle for me, and it doesn’t seek to penalise whoever the provider is. It’s to ensure the consumer gets what they have duly spent on.
“The regulations are not a panacea…we must constantly look through a reform of regulations to find opportunities that empower South African citizens with access to meaningful connectivity.”
Tackling high data costs has been an ongoing agenda for several years, resulting in the Competition Commission’s (CompCom’s) Data Services Market Inquiry.
In 2018, at the height of the #DataMustFall movement, former ruling party the African National Congress expressed concerns about the negative impact the high cost of data services has on ordinary South Africans.
At some point, there was even promiseof providing every South African household with access to 10GB of free data per month.
Last year, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) announced a campaign, calling for the immediate scrapping of the “exploitative and unconstitutional” expiry of prepaid mobile data and airtime.
The EFF argued that restrictions − such as the expiration of purchased data and airtime within seven days or even hours − not only violate consumer rights and manipulate pricing but undermine South Africans’ ability to live a life of dignity.
However, telecoms operators previously argued that prepaid data bundles and airtime have an expiry date in order to keep prices affordable for South Africans and enable efficient network planning.
Accelerated adoption of smartphones and mobile data affordability in South Africa have often been touted as drivers of economic activity in the digital economy.
According to the CompCom’s second Cost of Living Report,internet access is an increasingly essential service, as more aspects of daily life – from education and job applications, to banking and government services – shift online.
The CompCom’s report warns that for low-income households in particular, the cost of data can determine whether individuals are able to participate meaningfully in the digital economy.
“Access to affordable data is a critical component of economic and social participation in South Africa,” states the commission’s report, noting that high inequality and spatial divides continue to shape who gets online and who is left behind.
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