Mobile operators and internet providers face new privacy rules in Mozambique

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Mobile operators and internet providers face new privacy rules in Mozambique

3:38 CAT | 16 Aug 2019

Image: A Verdade

Mobile phone operators and internet providers in Mozambique are now required to respect the privacy of their customers, submit their service prices for approval by the Communications Regulatory Authority, respond to customer complaints within 15 days and are only allowed to send out advertising messages between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 9:00m p.m..

The newly created Mozambican Communications Regulatory Authority (ARECOM) appears to want to differentiate itself from the insipid National Communications Institute of Mozambique – known only to people for blocking mobile phone cards – by actively protecting the consumers of telecommunications services.

Through its recently approved Telecommunications Consumer Protection Regulation, ARECOM imposed on operators the need to subject the prices of their services and products for approval before making them public.

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“The way to protect consumers with respect to prices charged by telecom operators is to require operators to present the prices to be charged, so that the Regulatory Authority approves them according to objective criteria and the perspective that the prices to be charged for the provision of the telecommunication service must be cost oriented,” ARECOM explained to @Verdade.

According to the Communications Regulatory Authority, “In order to establish a cost-oriented price/tariff, we must use the so-called forward looking long-run incremental cost methodology, which will allow us to find the calculation of all the network elements indispensable to carrying out the communication. From there, we go to the formula for calculating the price/tariff that should equal the investment cost plus the rate of return,” the body explains

“It is on this basis that we obtain the tariff/price for the provision of the telecommunication service which must, prior to being launched on the market, be approved by the Mozambican Communications Regulatory Authority, which places the prices on its website/web page, as do operators, for public scrutiny,” ARECOM told @Verdade in an email interview.

Fines between 50,000 and one million Meticais

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The new regulations, which have been in force since the end of July, further state in Article 11, paragraph 2, that:

“Consumers have the right to special services which allow them to make emergency calls even after the termination or interruption of the service”.

In addition,: “Consumers must be informed in writing by message, e-mail, letter or other effective means of communication prior to the interruption or termination of the service in any situation.”

The Consumer Protection Regulation states that: “The telecommunications operator must respond to complaints within 15 working days of the date of complaint.”

The new legislation strengthens the focus on consumers’ right to privacy and protection against unauthorised use of their personal information in all communications “in unsolicited marketing material or information sent on behalf of third parties,” and also precludes the provision of the “consumer number or personal data to third parties without permission [of the consumer].”

Net control

With regard to marketing and advertising, the Communications Regulatory Authority has further imposed, in Article 28 (2), that:

“The telecommunications operator may only send messages deemed to be of consumer interest between 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m., except for force majeure.”

In addition, paragraph 4 of the same article provides: “The telecommunications operator may not send third party advertising text messages without the consumer’s prior free and express consent.”

Violation of the Consumer Protection Regulation is punishable by fines ranging from 50,000 meticais, “for each complaint not answered within 15 working days”, to 1 million meticais, if the operator “does not customise the ‘net control’ functionality” to prevent the consumption of airtime in case of data credit finishes.

By Adérito Caldeira

Source: A Verdade