South African consumers have taken a stand against all the big corporate mobile giants with one clear message… #DataMustFall
The conversation was started yesterday afternoon when Tbo Touch announced on his TouchCentralFM show that he was giving Mobile operators 30 days to make a change or he would use his platform to mobilise a community, that would be moving to the network provider that did actually make a rate change.
Touch also announced and tweeted that the station would be going around universities and colleges to hand out free data bundles, attaching the #DataMustFall hashtag.
Speaking to TMG Entertainment on Thursday morning, Touch said that the campaign started after the challenges of young people, especially students, were limited to accessing information because of high data costs. Touch explained that young people are “always broke” and can’t afford the incredibly high costs.
“Young people should be able to enjoy the benefits of e-learning by downloading textbooks online or catching up on a lecture on Youtube, but they can’t do that because everything revolves around data and wifi,” Touch said.
South Africans and high-profile personalities have joined Touch in taking a stand against the high data costs, which people have to deal with on a daily basis.
These are some of the data costs for a monthly pre-paid bundle on some of South Africa’s cellular networks
Vodacom
- R9 for 15MB
- R12 for 30MB
- R29 for 100MB
Cell C
- R11 for 30MB
- R20 for 60MB
- R29 for 100MB
MTN
- R12 for 2MB
- R25 for 50MB
- R33 for 35MB
Their message has started trending on Twitter under the hashtag #DataMustFall.
Dear @MTNza @Vodacom @CellC @TelkomZA If our government is listening your silence is unwarranted #datamustfall within 29 days or sooner ⏰
— Tbo Touch (@iamtbotouch) September 15, 2016
The power of Data gives access to education,mentorship,skills training,financial assistance, job searching & recruit #datamustfall
— Tbo Touch (@iamtbotouch) September 15, 2016
I swear MTN chows your data even when your phone is off. 😭😭😭 #datamustfall
— Ramela Moses(PHAṰHUTSHEDZO) (@TheeAlphaBro) September 14, 2016
How do we as artists expect people to watch our videos, download our songs and like our posts with such high data costs.#datamustfall !!!
— Sketchy Bongo (@SketchyBongo) September 15, 2016
When you want to support the #datamustfall movement but you realise you don't have data… pic.twitter.com/dRwVbd5Gfa
— Phindile Mgaga (@PhindiBlack) September 15, 2016
He banna. Data is so expensive I've had to stop asking for nudes. #datamustfall
— Champ Payne (@Champ_Payne) September 15, 2016
Can someone investigate how Blackberry managed to have us use only R60 worth of data via BIS??? We need that! #DataMustFall
— Phathisiwe 🇿🇦 (@Patty_Goxo) September 15, 2016
Data runs faster than usain bolt #datamustfall
— Mpho Manaka (@Mphoza_M) September 15, 2016
#datamustfall How do you expect me use the 15GB night express data?… And give me only 2GB during the day? I'm not an owl
— Billal Mabuza (@Billal_Mabuza) September 15, 2016
https://twitter.com/ThatoTheGreat/status/776339591502626816
Data prices in SA just prove that big companies don't give a sh*t about the state of the economy n da poor what a shame #DataMustFall
— IG RealDjBongz (@Dj_Bongz) September 15, 2016
Connectivity is a basic human right. #datamustfall
— Joubert Botha (@JoubertBotha) September 14, 2016
Vodacom is so used to stealing data. You'll get that "your data bundle has depleted" text, while using free Wi-Fi #datamustfall
— Sia Nkuna (@Sia_Nkuna) September 14, 2016
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