Applause for Icasa's proposal on data bundles

There can be few initiatives by a state regulator that have been so warmly welcomed as the proposals recently announced by the Independent Communications Authority of SA to change how network operators manage data bundles with their customers.

Few cellphone users understand the logic that sees unused bundles of data disappear into the ether - with our hard-earned rands.

So Icasa is to be applauded for finally tackling this issue that's akin to allowing us to keep the petrol in the tanks of our cars at the end of the month.

The proposals are now open for public comment and include specifying when various data bundles can expire with up to two years proposed for bundles at the most expensive end of the spectrum.

Should these proposals come to pass they will be a bold step in the right direction. With affordable and ubiquitous bandwidth identified as a key economic catalyst they could play a part in lifting us out of the doldrums.

But as welcome as this move is the proposals could go further. We agree with some critics who say there is no reason for data to expire at all and who point out that poorer consumers will continue to be prejudiced as the proposed expiry limits are shortest at the cheaper end.

We cannot agree with the Free Market Foundation's criticism that Icasa's proposals are as "ludicrous as expecting a little group of grey bureaucrats to tell us what groceries or clothes to buy".

This criticism is misdirected. Food or clothing retailers do not operate their businesses on a valuable public resource - broadband spectrum - as do the network operators. That's why there is a role for Icasa which, we are heartened to see, appears willing to act in the interests of consumers who feel that, when it comes to data, they have long been ripped off.