Battle over mobile data expiry from Vodacom and MTN

Vodacom and MTN have launched legal challenges to new regulations regarding mobile bundle rollover and expiry.

This, in turn, has caused a political backlash with parties like the Economic Freedom Fighters, arguing that unused data, voice, and SMS bundles should not expire.

The issue related to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s (ICASA’s) End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Amendment Regulations.

Amendments to these regulations included updated rules for bundle depletion, as well as rolling over and transferring minutes, messages, and megabytes.

This includes the requirement that operators may not allow any out-of-bundle usage and must roll over any unused bundle, or portions thereof, at least once.

Vodacom and MTN have launched legal challenges to review parts of the new End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Amendment Regulations.

Vodacom said there are aspects of the regulations that are ambiguous, which may make them difficult to implement in practice.

MTN said that its review seeks to ensure that the regulatory framework is lawful, reasonable, competitively neutral and practically implementable.

This did not go down well with the EFF, which condemned MTN and Vodacom’s decision to approach the courts.

“This is an attempt to undermine regulations introduced by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA),” it said.

“These regulations are there to protect consumers from the unjust expiry and forfeiture of unused data, voice, and SMS bundles.”

The EFF said it had consistently fought to protect the poor masses from the exploitative practices of telecommunications companies.

“We took the struggle to protect unused data directly to Parliament and have consistently maintained that data does not rot, expire, or perish like food,” it said.

“There is no justification for telecommunications companies to confiscate data that our people have already paid for.”

Data bundles with a validity of seven days or less

Sixolisa Gcilishe, a Member of the National Assembly, asked the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies for more details about the issue.

She asked for more information about the exclusion of bundles with a validity of seven days or less from rollover requirements.

Gcilishe asked the Minister what discussions he had with ICASA about the implications for consumer protection related to the short-term bundles.

She also asked about the actions taken to ensure that low-income consumers who depend on the daily bundles are not disadvantaged by the current exemptions.

Minister Solly Malatsi responded, saying ICASA considered the implications of including bundles with a validity period of seven days or less.

“These bundles are among the most frequently purchased and are generally offered as promotional products at discounted rates,” he said.

“Requiring such bundles to be subject to rollover provisions could reduce competition and limit operators’ ability to offer affordable short-term data products.”

He added that the exemption is intended to preserve the availability of affordable short-term promotional bundles, popular among low­ income consumers.

Removing the exemption could reduce the availability of these discounted offerings and ultimately disadvantage the consumers the regulations seek to protect.