Any biltong-loving, boerewors-blooded South African can tell you about the horror they face when they realise their mobile data has expired, despite using hardly any. “That’s just the way it is,” say the country’s telecom provider higher-ups, who rely on dodgy rules to drive up income and keep us all spending. A new amendment published by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) hopes to change that.
The End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Amendment Regulations, published last week, outline the changes for SA’s mobile data, SMS, and voice bundles. It decrees that telecom providers must allow these bundles to roll over at least once, allowing residents to ‘save’ their data for longer, and drastically reduce their spending.
Mobile data W for South Africa
“A Licensee must, at the end of the validity period of a bundle, roll over any unused bundle or portions thereof at least once, and subject the bundle rolled over to the same terms and conditions applicable to the original bundle, except for bundles that are 7 days or less and excluding uncapped, free and promotional bundles,” it reads.
ICASA has sewn shut any loopholes the providers may have used to wriggle out of compliance, too. The rollover must be applied to customers automatically and “without incurring any cost to the end-user” — assuming the customer’s phone number remains active during this period.
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The regulator also includes a change that will force these providers to warn customers of their data, SMS, or voice bundle consumption by sending an SMS warning at 50%, 80%, and 100% depletion of the bundle in question. This, too, will help residents conserve their data and hopefully roll it over into the following month.
Unfortunately, none of these changes will happen overnight. ICASA has given South Africa’s telecom companies, like Vodacom and Telkom, a year to fall in line. The changes will go into effect from 23 January 2027 — a year after the amendment was published.
