Mozambique's communications regulator INCM will bring a new Tariff Management System online in November, its most concrete response yet to a wave of consumer complaints that prepaid mobile data packages are running out far faster than advertised.

The regulator says consumers have raised concerns on social media and other channels about the rapid exhaustion of data bundles. Rather than treating the complaints as isolated grievances, INCM is building a platform designed to give it systematic visibility into what operators actually charge and deliver.

The Tariff Management System will have a broad mandate. According to INCM, it will strengthen monitoring of the tariffs and packages operators offer, allow comparison of tariffs across the market, and identify the effective price of a service including its conditions and validity. It will also verify the conditions applied to consumers, with the stated goal of ensuring greater transparency and accountability in the provision of telecommunications services.

Focus on data validity and abrupt cutoffs

For data services specifically, INCM has set two priorities. The first is to ensure that the announced validity of a package is effective for the consumer — that a bundle sold as lasting 30 days actually does. The second is to guarantee that depletion of the data volume does not result in an abrupt interruption of service before the scheduled expiry date.

That second point addresses one of the most common complaints in African prepaid markets: subscribers discovering their data has been consumed — or their service cut — ahead of schedule, often with no clear breakdown of what drove the usage. INCM has not named specific operators or alleged specific accounting irregularities in its announcement.

Alongside the monitoring platform, INCM says it is running a separate process of restructuring telecommunications packages, with the aim of adopting what it calls fairer and more predictable solutions for consumers.

Operators pressed on transparency

The regulator is also pushing the supply side. It says it is encouraging operators to provide clear, accessible and verifiable information on consumption, balances and the conditions applicable to each package. Operators are also expected to explain the factors that determine the level of mobile data consumption — a nod to subscriber confusion over background usage, application behaviour and how volume is metered.

INCM frames the initiative as an ongoing supervisory effort rather than a one-off intervention. It says it will continue to monitor the concerns presented and work with operators toward greater transparency, better quality of services and more effective consumer protection.

Where there are indications of irregularities in the accounting of data, INCM says the necessary technical checks will be carried out and applicable regulatory measures adopted. That gives the regulator an enforcement backstop if the transparency push fails to resolve the complaints.

Consumers, for their part, are advised to continue using the complaints channels supplied by their operators in the first instance. If they are not satisfied with the response, INCM invites them to escalate through its own channels via the regulator's website.

The November launch gives operators in Mozambique a deadline to align their package disclosures and data accounting practices before systematic tariff monitoring begins.