Safaricom, Airtel, Telkom, CA Sued Over Data Expiry

Lawyer and ICT practitioner Adrian Kamotho has taken to court Kenya’s three mobile service providers Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom over the expiry of data bundles.

Also sued is the industry regulator, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) in the case filed at the Communications and Multimedia Appeals Tribunal.

“That an order directing the respondents (Safaricom, Airtel, Telkom) to enable active subscribers to roll over used data at all times,” Kamotho says in the petition.

The lawyer also wants the telcos to allow subscribers to transfer unused data to other users on the same network.

This comes few days after the government of Ghana ordered all telecommunication companies to stop the expiry of data and voice bundles purchased by consumers.

Read: No More Expiring Data, Voice Bundles, Ghanaian Government Orders Telcos

In a letter dated October 9, 2019, and copied to the CEOs of MTN, Vodafone, Airtel Tigo and Glo too, the state ordered that all unused data and voice bundles purchased by subscribers that has not been used must not expire and must be rolled over with the next recharge.

In February, South Africa issued a similar directive ordering operators to allow subscribers to roll over ‘expired’ data.

The South African government also bars operators from implementing out-of-bundle charges without customers’ consent, where customers’ airtime is used in case data bundles are depleted.

Kamotho also wants telcos to issue alerts when unused data is 75 percent, 50 percent, 25 percent and 0 percent.

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