Telecommunications giant Vodacom will not charge contract and hybrid consumers subscribed to data-only packages or data-inclusive integrated packages for the automatic rollover, for one month, of data.

However, remaining data on bundle purchases by all customers will be rolled over at no additional charge once a customer buys the same bundle as the original one, effective March 1.

This followed uproar earlier this week after it was reported that Vodacom planned to charge consumers a fee to roll over any unused data.

MyBroadband reported that, to extend data on bundles valid for more than one day, Vodacom would have charged R5 to roll over remaining data of less than 100 MB, R12 for unused data between 100 MB and 250 MB, R19 to extend data values between 250 MB and 500 MB, R29 for 500 MB to 1 GB and R49 for all bundles exceeding 1 GB.

All hourly bundles would have been rolled over at a cost of R10, while daily bundles would have cost R25 to extend.

However, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) said it planned to investigate whether Vodacom is guilty of any compliance breaches following its decision to charge consumers for the rollover of unused data.

The authority, last year, tabled the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Regulations, which were to be implemented by February 28, outlining new regulations aimed at easing high communications costs for consumers.

The charter sets out minimum standards for the provision of data, SMSes and voice services and dictates the actions required around data expiry and out-of-bundle services.

In terms of the rollover of data, licensees are required to provide an option for consumers to roll over unused data, as well as the option of transferring data to other users on the same network.

Vodacom, in a statement on Wednesday, said that “further enhancements” to the roll-over services would be announced soon.

The group has also made other changes to various plans and packages, including a reduction in its out-of-bundle (OOB) rates.

“In addition to simply implementing the Icasa regulations, we have gone further by slashing OOB data rates by between 45% and 70% to ensure increased value to customers,” said Vodacom consumer business unit chief officer Jorge Mendes.

OOB rates will decline to a single 49c/MB tariff across the board, down from a rate of 99c/MB for prepaid customers and 89c/MB for hybrid and contract customers.

“In addition, customers that choose Vodacom’s worry-free Data Refill feature can save as much as 70% on OOB prices with an effective price of 30c/MB,” he added.

However, Vodacom plans to table a below-inflation average increase on certain prepaid, hybrid and contracts from April 1. The company did not elaborate on the new pricing structures.

Meanwhile, Vodacom says it will, ahead of the planned implementation of the charter regulations, deploy a number of other innovations to ensure it is fully compliant with Icasa’s regulations.

This included options of selecting to opt out of OOB blocking completely; purchasing another bundle, including personalised Just4You offers; and opting into Vodacom’s Data Refill service that will ensure all customers never go OOB as it auto-allocates a safety bundle in the event that their data is depleted.

Vodacom is obliged to suspend a service if none of the above options is selected.

Vodacom already meets and exceeds the requirement to send data depletion notifications, with alerts sent at the 50%, 80%, 95% and 100% levels.

Customers will also be able to transfer data that is about to expire to friends and family on the Vodacom network for fees ranging from free for 50 MB up to a maximum of R20 for 1 GB.