NATIONAL NEWS - The National Consumer Commission (NCC) said on Thursday that it would study the final regulations issued by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) to determine if they are in line with the Consumer Protection Act before commenting on them.
Icasa on Thursday issued new regulations which seek to prohibit mobile network providers from charging out-of-bundle tariffs without the consent of their subscribers in a bid to regulate runaway data prices.
According to the new regulations, among others, mobile network service providers must send usage depletion notifications to customers when their usage is at 50, 80 and 100 percent depletion levels so that they can avoid using their airtime.
Icasa also said that providers are also required to give customers the option to rollover unused data in a bid to ensure that customers do not lose unused data as is the current practice.
In a statement, the NCC said that in respect of prepaid data, unused data should not expire unless three years has lapsed, or the data has been used up.
The NCC also said that in respect of post-paid data, unused data must be carried over for the duration of a consumer’s contract with a network provider.
NCC Commissioner Ebrahim Mohamed said that the organisation’s views are in line with the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA), which is the primary legislation in the country when it comes to protection of consumers.
