Durban - Icasa is changing their out of bundle billing practices and making amendments to data services.
In a government gazette report, Icasa details the expiry of data practices from the normal 30-day expiry date to different time periods of validity for the different data bundles.
The validity period is dependent on the amount of data that the consumer has.
For each bundle, Icasa recommends these expiry dates:
● 1 MB – 50MB: 10 days
● 50MB – 500 MB: 30 days
● 500MB – 1Gb: 60 days
● 1Gig – 5 Gig: 90 days
● 5 Gig – 10 Gig: 180 days
● 10 Gig – 20Gig: 12 months
● 20 Gig > 24 months
The report also recommends that service providers must send consumers messages when their data bundle has ‘completely run out or is depleted” and to allow for users to buy extra bundles when the bundle is drained.
Vodacom was under fire recently from Wendy Appelbaum who berated the service provider for their extremely high priced data bundles, calling them expensive in comparison Telkom.
Appelbaum started legal proceedings in April 2017 against Vodacom for their high prices that are charged for data once a data bundle has diminished.
File Image: IOL
Other proposed regulations include service providers not automatically charging users after the data bundle is depleted but allow for them to opt in or opt out of a new data bundle.
Some of the problems regarding data lies in the high cost of data bundles and the lack of accessibility for some users. Users of data bundles have taken to Twitter and Facebook to voice their complaints regarding cost and the inability to have easy access to data.