TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      Unlawful Eskom strike costing South Africa three stages of load shedding

      1 July 2022

      Striking Eskom workers will face consequences: De Ruyter

      1 July 2022

      The AI tool that has changed my life as a developer

      1 July 2022

      Google.co.za is down and the domain is pending deletion

      1 July 2022

      US files charges over South African bitcoin fraud scheme

      1 July 2022
    • World

      Meta girds for ‘fierce’ headwinds

      1 July 2022

      Graphics card prices plummet as crypto demand dries up

      30 June 2022

      Bitcoin just had its worst quarter in a decade

      30 June 2022

      Samsung beats TSMC to 3nm chip production

      30 June 2022

      Napster plots crypto comeback

      29 June 2022
    • In-depth

      The NFT party is over

      30 June 2022

      The great crypto crash: the fallout, and what happens next

      22 June 2022

      Goodbye, Internet Explorer – you really won’t be missed

      19 June 2022

      Oracle’s database dominance threatened by rise of cloud-first rivals

      13 June 2022

      Everything Apple announced at WWDC – in less than 500 words

      7 June 2022
    • Podcasts

      How your organisation can triage its information security risk

      22 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E06 – ‘Apple Silicon’

      15 June 2022

      The youth might just save us

      15 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E05 – ‘Nvidia: The Green Goblin’

      8 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E04 – ‘The story of Intel – part 2’

      1 June 2022
    • Opinion

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022

      Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

      13 June 2022

      A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

      19 May 2022

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022

      How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

      8 April 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»News»No data bundle expiry for three years: Icasa

    No data bundle expiry for three years: Icasa

    News By Staff Reporter20 November 2017
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email

    Communications regulator Icasa has amended previous draft proposals on data expiry meant to protect consumers from high communication costs.

    Icasa had previously proposed introducing regulations with tiered expiry of data bundles — the larger the bundle, the longer it would take to expire.

    It has now amended this proposal, and now wants all prepaid bundles to have a minimum expiry period of three years (unless used).

    The regulations could have a huge impact on mobile providers, which have developed pricing based on data expiry that’s often as short as 30 days — and sometimes even shorter.

    Icasa published a notice in the Government Gazette in August saying it intended amending the end-user and subscriber service charter regulations. It proposed at the time that data bundles between 1GB and 5G should remain valid for 90 days, while bigger bundles, such as 20GB and more, should remain valid for 24 months or longer. End users should also be provided with an option to roll over unused data before the expiry date.

    Specifically, the previously proposed expiry periods for data bundles were:

    • 1-50MB: 10 days
    • 50-500MB: 30 days
    • 500MB-1GB: 60 days
    • 1-5GB: 90 days
    • 5-10GB: 180 days
    • 10-20GB: 12 months
    • 20GB and more: 24 months

    Icasa was criticised for favouring consumers who could afford to pay for large data bundles, while those buying smaller bundles — often the poor — would have their data expire in as little as 10 days.

    The regulator has now proposed a uniform three-year expiry for all bundles, no matter the size. This could prove a big problem for South Africa’s telecommunications operators, which argue that data expiry is necessary to help them plan their networks and keep prices down.

    As with the previous Icasa proposal, telecoms licensees will be required to send usage notifications for data depletion to consumers at intervals of 50%, 75%, 90% and 100% service depletion. “The notification must be through an SMS, push notification or any other applicable means.”

    Consumers must be given an option to opt into or out of being charged out of bundle data rates to avoid bill shock, Icasa said.

    It has set a new deadline of 3 January 2018 for written comments on the draft regulations. It plans to hold public hearings, which will no doubt be fiery, on 7, 8 and 9 February 2018, with final regulations to be promulgated by 31 March 2018.  — (c) 2017 NewsCentral Media

    Icasa top
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleNaspers hits R4 000/share
    Next Article Zimbabwe’s dictator has fallen

    Related Posts

    Unlawful Eskom strike costing South Africa three stages of load shedding

    1 July 2022

    Striking Eskom workers will face consequences: De Ruyter

    1 July 2022

    The AI tool that has changed my life as a developer

    1 July 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Billetterie simplifies interactions between law firms and clients

    30 June 2022

    Think herding cats is tricky? Try herding a cloud

    29 June 2022

    How your business can help hybrid workers effectively

    28 June 2022
    Opinion

    Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

    21 June 2022

    Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

    13 June 2022

    A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

    19 May 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.