Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services Siyabonga Cwele says final regulations, aimed at reducing the high cost of data, would be implemented by October.
The draft regulations by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) would effectively put a stop to the automatic expiry of data bundles after a 30-day period and could allow for the expiry date to be stretched up to two years.
The draft sets the expiry for 500MB to 1GB of data at 60 days while that of 5 to 10GB is set at 180 days.
Cwele made the undertaking while responding to a parliamentary question from the IFP’s Liezl van der Merwe, who wanted to know if the department had made any progress in the past 12 months to reduce the cost to communicate in South Africa.
He said Icasa was currently working on mechanisms to regulate the expiry of data bundles.
“Initial interventions will ensure provisions to ensure that all segments of data bundles do not automatically expire after 30 days but have a cascading scale as proposed in Icasa’s draft regulations.”
He also said the industry would be required to inform consumers as data gets depleted due to use. Consumers will be allowed an option to choose whether to purchase more data bundles as opposed to the usual default to out-of-bundle rates.
“The final regulations will be in place by the end of October,” Cwele said.
However, Icasa would not commit to any deadline, saying it was still accepting submissions on the draft regulations.
“In terms of our processes we are receiving submissions from civil society, the operators and all interested parties, and the deadline for that is September 19. We have to analyse submissions and that could take some time,” Icasa spokesperson Paseka Maleka said yesterday.
He said Icasa could also call for public hearings on the matter.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa is currently working on mechanisms to regulate the expiry of data bundles, according to Minister Siyabonga Cwele. Picture: Archives
Maleka said the aim of the regulations was to ensure that the cost of data was reduced, adding that previously Icasa did not have regulations focusing specifically on data.
He called on the public to make submissions. “We do not want just a one-liner saying data must fall, the submission must be detailed.”
R2K spokesperson Biko Mutsaurwa said while there was reason to celebrate, the draft regulations were “clearly not enough”.
He accused operators of overcharging on data so as to maximise profits.
“If you look at the golden handshakes they give to their CEOs you will note that there is a culture of corporate greed within these companies.”
He shot down the argument that these regulations could lead to operators increasing data costs.
“I really think the argument is insincere. The problem was that people had data, that they had paid for, expiring and so this is an argument you get from the operators and the free market forum because they want to continue making super profits”.
He was doubtful new regulations could be implemented before the end of this year.
There were complaints about the high data costs in South Africa and that the prices were unjustifiable, especially to the poor. This has prompted a push for the reduction of data costs with Icasa saying the looming market inquiry into data costs would force down prices.
In his parliamentary response, Cwele said the inquiry into the data market was expected to last from September 18 until August next year.
What the regulations have to say
An operator is obliged to send data depletion notifications to the user at regular intervals.
The interval must show 50%, 75%, 90% and 100% depletion of data bundles.
A user must be sent notifications when his or her data bundle has been depleted.
A user must not be automatically defaulted to out-of-data bundle charges upon the depletion of his or her data bundles.
A user must be provided with an option to opt in or out of data bundle usage.
The regulations also propose the following expiry dates:
**1 to 50MB to be valid for 10 days.
**50-500MB to be valid for 30 days.
**500MB-1GB to be valid for 60 days.
**1-5GB to be valid for 90 days
**5-10GB to be valid for 180 days
**10-20GB to be valid for 12 months and
**20+ GB to be valid for 24 months.