New rules for mobile data in South Africa
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has published updated rules for voice, SMS, and data bundles in the country, including requirements that networks roll over specific unused bundles.
Called the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Amendment Regulations, 2025, they will take effect on 23 January 2027 — 12 months after their publication.
“A licensee must, at the end of the validity period of a bundle, roll over any unused bundle or portions thereof at least once, and subject the bundle rolled over to the same terms and conditions,” it said.
“The rollover of bundles must occur without requiring action and without incurring any cost to the end-user, provided that the number remains active.”
However, this excludes bundles valid for seven days or less, as well as uncapped, free, and promotional bundles.
“The validity period of a bundle must be extended when the end-user is unable to utilise the bundle due to a fault on the part of the licensee,” Icasa said.
Icasa also specified that notifications via SMS for bundle depletion must be sent when usage reaches 50%, 80%, and 100% depletion.
“At all times, a licensee must ensure that end-users are provided with the option to opt out of or into usage depletion notifications,” it added.
Customers must also be given the option to purchase additional bundles via USSD, push notifications, or any other appropriate communication channel.
Licensees must give customers the option to opt in or out of out-of-bundle usage charges, and should they opt out, licensees must not permit any out-of-bundle usage.
The rules require operators to apply bundle usage sequentially, starting with unused bundles with the earliest expiry and proceeding to the next-earliest until depleted.
Moreover, Icasa wants operators to allow the transfer of full bundles or portions of bundles to any end-user using services of the same operator.
“Such transfer must be subject to the same terms and conditions applicable to the original bundle,” it said.
The transfer of bundles must not be limited to any specific type of service or the number of times the end-user transfers such bundles.
Transfers must apply to any SIM card on the same network, but cannot apply to uncapped, free, or promotional bundles.
The amendment harmonises the rules for voice, SMS, and data bundles, repealing the separate section of the regulations that was dedicated to data services.
Icasa warned to be cautious
In early January 2026, Koketso Moeti, Amandla.Mobi executive director warned that Icasa should be cautious in how it implements changes to bundle validity and rollover.
“Icasa had started the process a while ago to change parts of the regulations to enable this,” she said.
“The thing that we should be absolutely cautious about in how this is implemented is that it shouldn’t only benefit high-income earners.”
She explained that lower-income earners in South Africa tend to buy smaller bundles and thus feel the impact of data expiry more than others.
Moeti said these users tend to prefer buying bundles with short validity periods, such as one-hour or one-day bundles.
“Load reduction is still happening in townships. What would then happen is you’ve spent some of your last money, and by the time electricity comes back, you’ve already lost the data,” she said.
Moeti further warned that failing to implement the new rules cautiously could result in higher data prices or mobile networks removing their smaller, shorter bundles entirely.
“I know a lot of people do not want data to expire at all. That data should just run and run and run,” she said.
However, she added that this would give networks no incentive to keep the small, affordable bundles they have introduced.
“What we are saying is that it should roll over for the same validity period. So, if it was two days that you had, let it roll over for two days, not indefinitely,” said Moeti.
“We cannot risk impacting those smaller bundles, because that would in fact make things harder for low-income consumers and increase the digital divide in South Africa.”
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