Lack of affordable data will hold people back from access to critical services in this digital age, says community advocacy group amandla.mobi.
amandla.mobi has welcomed proposed regulations from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to support bringing down the cost of data access and communication. As an organisation whose work is focused on black women from low-income communities, the organisation’s concern has particularly been on how the poor pay more for data than the rich.
“Low income consumers are paying disproportionately high charges and are not seeing benefits of competition in comparison to high income consumers who are able to buy larger quantities of data,” said executive director at amandla.mobi Koketso Moeti.
The organisation said current charges reinforced the digital divide.
“Unless the matter is addressed, lack of access will continue to hold people back as internet access is needed to register a business, apply for schools and even to access certain jobs,” Moeti said.
“Public services are also increasingly improving their responsiveness online, which means that those unable to access the internet may be unable to report issues or access critical services.”
For months the organisation, together with hundreds of members who volunteered, has enabled tens of thousands to take various actions around the reduction of data prices through its #DataMustFall campaign.
ICASA will host public hearings on its proposed regulations on March 1 and 2, 2018.
While amandla.mobi welcomes the moves made by ICASA, it noted that millions who are affected would not be able to attend the hearings because they are only taking place at ICASA’s national office in Sandton, Johannesburg. amandla.mobi has called on members to send their input via voice notes and emails, which will be played and read as part of the organisation’s presentation at 15:30. amandla.mobi will call on ICASA to strengthen the proposed regulations through:
- Setting a restriction on the maximum difference allowed in pricing per megabyte between small and large bundles, with the ideal being no difference at all.
- Entrenching consumer choice by having a default ‘opt out’ for out of bundle data and that each time a data bundle is close to running out a SMS text be sent offering the consumer the option to ‘opt-in’ to out of bundle rates with information on what that rate is. If the operator did not receive an opt in reply, then no airtime should be used, and data supply should be cut when the bundle is finished
- To avoid potentially stifling innovative packages that serve low income users, amandla.mobi recommends reducing the proposed three-year expiry period to between 90 to 120 days which is more in-line with SIM card validity period.
amandla.mobi’s full submission explaining the recommendations can be found on here.
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For more information and interviews, contact:
Koketso Moeti
082 583 5869
