Prepaid data in South Africa still works like a bad pantry. You buy it, save some for later, and the network quietly throws it away when the cycle ends. Khusela Diko, who chairs Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies, has now said out loud what millions of phone users already assume: mobile data has no technical reason to expire.
Her comments land at a messy moment for the industry. MPs have just visited MTN’s headquarters in Roodepoort. The visit comes while MTN and Vodacom are fighting ICASA in court over the regulator’s updated End-User and Subscriber Service Charter rules. Those rules deal with data rollover, bundle depletion warnings, and the transfer of minutes and megabytes. In plain language, they try to make data act more like something you own, rather than something that evaporates on a deadline.
What Diko said
Diko’s line was blunt. She said Parliament does not see a technical reason for the use-it-to-lose-it model that still dominates mobile bundles. She also said the committee’s talks with operators are not meant to bulldoze ICASA into backing off its position. The point, she said, is to understand the pressures the industry claims it is dealing with.
Parliament is not pretending there are no operational headaches. Diko acknowledged that operators face infrastructure management challenges and financial management challenges. Her argument is narrower and tougher: those challenges may be real, but they do not automatically justify letting paid-for data disappear.
She also said the consumer reaction has been obvious. The regulations, she noted, were broadly welcomed because people have never understood why data must expire. That frustration is easy to recognise if you have ever topped up late in the month, used half of it, and then watched the rest die unused while the next bundle sale lands in your inbox.
Why the operators are fighting
MTN and Vodacom are not challenging a small admin tweak. They are taking issue with a set of rules that would force a more generous system for subscribers. Unused data would carry over instead of disappearing at the end of a bundle period. The same rules also cover transferability, so unused minutes and megabytes can be passed on in certain cases, and depletion notices, so customers are warned before they hit zero.
The operators’ side of the argument is straightforward enough. They say the rules affect how they manage networks, forecast demand, and plan revenue. If data does not expire on schedule, they have to deal with more unpredictable usage patterns, more tracking, and more pressure on pricing models that were built around expiry.
That is the industry argument, not a technical impossibility. Diko’s point cuts through the usual telecom fog: a billing model that is convenient for the company does not make it technologically necessary. Expiry is a business rule. Parliament is now treating it like one.
What Parliament is actually probing
The oversight visit to MTN’s headquarters is not a signal that Parliament is about to scrap the ICASA rules. Diko’s comments suggest the committee wants to hear the operator case without surrendering the consumer case.
South Africans are used to telecom fights being dressed up as engineering debates when they are really about money and control. Companies talk about network complexity, while users just see their paid data disappearing before they had a chance to use it. The committee seems to be saying that both things can be true at once, but only one of them affects the customer’s wallet.
The current court battle will shape how far the regulator can go in forcing fairer bundle terms. If MTN and Vodacom succeed, the old expiry logic stays intact for longer. If ICASA’s position holds, the industry will have to adjust to rules that give consumers more protection around rollover, depletion alerts, and bundle transfers.
What consumers stand to gain
For ordinary phone users, the stakes are simple. Data rollover would reduce waste, especially for people on prepaid plans who buy smaller bundles and cannot afford to burn through every megabyte in the same month. It would also make mobile spending less punishing for households that rely on one device for work messages, school apps, banking, maps, and entertainment.
It would also bring the market closer to what people already expect from something they paid for. If you bought airtime and did not use it, you would not accept the network taking it back. Data is treated differently only because the industry has been able to get away with it for years.
The other piece in the ICASA rules, bundle depletion alerts, is less flashy but just as important. Once users know when they have hit 50%, 80%, and 100% of their bundle, they can stop getting ambushed by surprise depletion and out-of-bundle charges. For prepaid users, this is basic protection.
The real test now is whether the operators can prove that expiry is necessary, not merely profitable. Diko has already drawn a line in Parliament. Her view is that the use-it-to-lose-it system has no technical defence, and that is a hard statement for the industry to wave away. If it wants to keep expiry alive, it will have to explain why customers should keep paying for a design choice that looks increasingly like an old habit with a billing code attached.
