South African mobile telephone operator Vodacom failed to launch its new 99 cents offer due to what it termed as a technological lapse.
The South Africa’s Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) blocked the offer, initially intended to be part of Vodacom’s Freedom 99 campaign.
ICASA stated this is because Vodacom failed to provide it with the details of the new tariff change seven days before the network operator made an official announcement to the press.
“ICASA has a regulatory mandate to ensure compliance with all regulations and the Electronic Communications Act. The authority informed Vodacom that, based on the wording of the press release issued on 16 May 2012, Vodacom was deemed non-compliant,” ICASA said.
Vodacom had earlier on May 18 acknowledged an error in the wording of their May 16 press release, which promoted the Freedom 99 as a tariff rather than a promotion based on the All Day Per Minute price plan.
This led Vodacom to halt the roll-out of the promotion, previously scheduled for May 20.
Vodacom said the offer presented its customers the ability to call all networks at 99 cents per minute. Freedom 99 customers who recharge with R12 or more were to get 60 minutes free talk time everyday for seven days to call Vodacom customers between midnight and 0500hrs.
The move by Vodacom was viewed as a bid set to counter Cell C’s move to slash their prepaid call rates to 99 cents — that was officially announced on May 16 dubbed “99 Cents For Real”.
Cell C’s new service reduces off-peak and peak calls to 99 cents per minute while at the same time cutting the rate of MMS messaging to 99 cents, and data at 99 cents per MB.
According to ICASA proper procedure would have to be followed before Vodacom would be allowed to go ahead.
