👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – OPay gains an admirer

If you’ve ever opened a health or government website and received a notification pop-up that you will be browsing (that website) for free, you’ve encountered zero-rating. 

It means that the network providers or third-party sponsors cover the cost of data used to access those websites, and South Africa wants to make that available to thousands of public-interest websites.

Why? To ensure that people get unrestricted access to important information that may be contained on such websites.

What is the country doing? South Africa’s telecom operators, including MTN, Vodacom, Telkom, Rain, Cell C, and Liquid Intelligent Technologies, are now required to stop charging customers for accessing eligible content from public benefit organisations (PBOs) by January 15, 2027. 

DG Murray Trust (DGMT), a South African philanthropic organisation, warned that operators are running out of time and implementation is lagging. It says only 15 organisations have been zero-rated across the major operators.

Explain like I’m new here: The zero-rating policy dates back to South Africa’s 2022 spectrum auction, when the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), the country’s telecoms regulator, sold mobile operators additional space on the country’s radio frequency airwaves, giving them more room for operation.

In return for getting this new capacity, the licence conditions had social obligations. One was that operators must zero-rate mobile content from PBOs, including government websites. 

What websites get the free data? A PBO is a qualifying organisation that provides a public benefit, such as education, healthcare, employment support, or other social services. Organisations have to apply to ICASA and have their content assessed before it qualifies for zero-rating.

Why does this matter? Having network coverage is not the same as being able to afford it. ICASA said more than 89% of rural populations had 3G and 4G/LTE coverage in every province in 2025.

However, data prices in South Africa are still higher than in 27 other African nations. Zero-rating doesn’t mean those websites are available offline, but it does mean people can access them without paying for the data—the cost has simply been sponsored. Users can get free access to selected PBO platforms, not unrestricted Internet access.