Parliament wants independent probe of Vodacom billing glitch
The company has since apologised and begun reimbursing customers who were affected by the problem, but Parliament has called for a further probe into the matter. The billing crisis came amid growing calls around the country for data prices, which remain stubbornly high, to be slashed.
Parliament's portfolio committee on telecommunications and postal services said on Thursday, 24 August, that it strongly condemned the Vodacom incident.
Although the company had apologised to customers and committed not only to refund them, but also to give them an extra 500MB bundle valid for three days, the committee said the matter must be investigated by an independent body.
"SA ranks fourth out of 17 African countries with high costs of data, and to have millions of people robbed of their airtime and data in this manner is a serious concern," said Dikeledi Tsotetsi, the acting chairperson of the committee.
She said having received inputs from individuals and organisations during the cost-to-communicate public hearings held in Parliament last year, the committee had tasked the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) to investigate high data costs further.
In May, Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel announced that SA's high data costs would be investigated by the Competition Commission. This month, the commission published the terms of reference of the inquiry and called for submissions. The inquiry will look into the market structure, the general adequacy and impact of the current regulatory regime, and costs faced and profits earned by fixed and mobile network operators.
Icasa is also reviewing the broadband market and has said the reduction in the cost of data would depend on the outcome of the review. Tsotetsi said while the committee was awaiting reports of the ongoing investigations by Icasa and the Competition Commission, the mobile network operators had a responsibility to conduct business in a manner that was just and lawful.
Source: BDpro
Source: I-Net Bridge
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