MTN and Vodacom Sue Icasa Over Data Expiry Rules
MTN and Vodacom have taken South Africa's communications regulator Icasa to court to challenge its data-expiry rules. The legal action has the potential to set a precedent shaping consumer data policy across the continent.
Data Expiry: the operators have a point, and that's the problem
Icasa's rollover rules exist because South Africa's big two operators were found to have "evaded the spirit" of existing consumer protections — that's the regulator's own finding, not a campaigner's allegation.
So when MTN and Vodacom now argue those rules will harm poorer consumers by killing off cheap, no-frills short-term bundles, they may even be right. But they're also the companies that made stronger rules necessary in the first place.
When the very actors who created the problem get to litigate the remedy, the consumer who just wants their unused data to survive the month is the one most likely to keep waiting.
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- MTN, Vodacom take Icasa to court over data expiry rules · techcentral.co.za · T2