Vodacom is reviewing a new charge to roll over data - following a huge outcry.

It planned to charge consumers up to R49 to roll over data.

Telkom and MTN doesn't charge for data rollover, while Cell C's rollover charge is nearly half that amount.

Following an angry reaction among its clients, Vodacom is reconsidering a new charge to roll over data.

From the beginning of March, South Africans will be able to roll over data to the following month, according to new rules implemented by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa).

Vodacom was planning to charge R5 to roll over 100 megabytes (mb) in data, R12 to roll over data between 100mb and 250mb, R19 to roll over data between 250mb and 500mb and R29 for data between 500mb and 1GB.

For 1GB and above, Vodacom was planning R49. 1GB data costs R149 at Vodacom.



On Monday morning, clients slammed Vodacom, saying it had tried to find a loophole in the new rules adopted by Icasa from March 1st.

Imagine that you spent R149 on 1GB of data from @Vodacom. Yay!But then for some reason didn't use it in the 30 day validity period. Boo!But @ICASA_org has created regulations for mandatory data rollover. Yay!But @Vodacom *charges* you R49 to roll it over. WTF? Boo! https://t.co/1ZHualqngj — Andrew Fraser + C8H10N4O2 (@Arfness) February 25, 2019

Legally they have to roll over unused data but @Vodacom is going to charge their customers as per this table? How is this allowed? #confused #data pic.twitter.com/bS57BurpvT — Lynette Anthony Hundermark (@LynetteAnthony) February 25, 2019

Wow @Vodacom, after all of your attempts to delay the regulations, you’re still committed to continuing to pick-pocketing consumers. Despicable!!! #DataMustFall https://t.co/65S2vlXsEr — Koketso Moeti (@Kmoeti) February 25, 2019

Vodacom soon deactivated the webpage which displayed its rollover data prices and said it is currently reviewing their rollover pricing.

“[We] will communicate this on the planned launch date (March 1st),” Vodacom told Business Insider South Africa.

Telkom and MTN are not charging anything to roll over data. Both companies told Business Insider SA that they had no intention of charging for the service.

Cell C said it charges a fee based on dynamic pricing where the costs depend on the amount of data extended.

A consumer who, for example, has 763MB data will, therefore, pay R7.63 to extend it with one day, R15.26 to extend it for seven days, and R22.89 to extend it for 30 days.

For more, go to Business Insider South Africa.

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