AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) has issued a number of rules to guide telecom companies in issuance of data bundles in a move aimed at addressing grievances aired by consumers on costs and quality of services.
TCRA Director General James Kilaba said yesterday that the new rules coming into effect on April 2 require service providers not to offer bundles without approval from the regulator and ensure data bundle prices are within indicative prices directed by TCRA.
The new rules require service providers to use simple language in data provision for ease of customers to grasp, while being disallowed from changing and twisting terms and conditions of the bundles within three month of issuance.
”Service providers will notify user on the usage of the bundle upon reaching 75-percent and 100 percent for voice bundles and short message services (SMS),” the regulator elaborated.
Similarly, service providers are required to insert a mobile app to help user know the rate of data bundle usage by downloading the app.
Service providers need to enable the user to choose and agree to charges on data use and units of the selected data, where telecom companies provide for selection in the menu before a user chooses a data or voice bundle to buy.
“The service provider will not be allowed to reduce data speed during the use of the purchased bundle,” the rules further underline.
The new guidelines also direct telecom companies not to issue three promotions and special offers of different kinds at the same time.
TCRA said that from 2018 to 2021 the average cost for calls within one network without subscribing to bundles has dropped from 290.27/- per minute to 90.81/-, a 76percent decrease while internetwork connection without bundles has dropped by 81percent.
The new rules come from analysing the cost difference between using bundles and not using bundles, where TCRA noticed that 90-percent of phone use is tied to bundles and thus complaints come most from this source.
