Dale Steyn reignites furore over high SA data costs with Bali comparison

Dale Steyn sparked a fresh round of complaints about the high cost of mobile phone data‚ when he shared a comparison of pricing between South Africa and Bali on Monday.

"Touch down South Africa. So I just bought 10GB data for R605. In Bali‚ I paid R120 for 25GB! Seriously!" tweeted the South African cricketer.

Several of his followers shared their countries' pricing‚ with Zishan Khan @AhmadZishanKhan saying: "Seriously? In India‚ we pay approximately R75 for 84 GB."

Mohale Mosala @MohaleMosala queried why South Africa's telecoms regulator did not deal with the issue‚ which has been gaining traction since Tbo Touch piloted the #DataMustFall campaign two years ago.

"I don’t know what Icasa is waiting for!! Honestly‚ these companies are stealing from us‚" said Mosala‚ while Gerald @MofgReal commented scathingly‚ "Icasa is led by spineless people".

Last month‚ the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) announced that cellphone users would soon have an option to keep their data and not risk losing it if they have not used it within 30 days. Under the proposed change‚ users would in future also receive notifications when they have used half‚ 80% or all of their data to provide an option to people wanting to avoid potentially higher charges for out of bundle rates.

While some social media users welcomed the changes‚ many bemoaned the fact that the regulator had not reduced the actual costs of data.