Roaming costs — don’t let cellphone companies call the shots

In a time of WhatsApp voice calls, and when you can instruct your cellphone provider to switch off or cap your roaming capability, it seems unthinkable that your cellphone bill could ever run into the thousands. But that’s exactly what happened to Julie Williams of Cape Town.

In May 2022, Williams was about to embark on a trip to France. She tried contacting her cellphone provider Cell C to find out about the charges for the international roaming service. She battled to get hold of someone via the call centre and when she finally did speak to someone, she was told that she could activate international roaming but would have to increase her monthly limit to R20,000.

“I immediately object(ed) to this and express(ed) to the operator that I would like to set my monthly bill limit at R2,000,” she wrote in her founding affidavit submitted to the National Consumer Tribunal.

Williams repeated this objection three times before asking to speak to a manager. The operator then put her on hold and returned a minute later to say she would set the monthly limit at R2,000 as requested. The R2,000 limit was added to her existing monthly limit of R1,785.

In June, after returning from her trip, she received a cellphone bill of R11,265.32 for international roaming expenses incurred from 5 May 2022 to 6 May 2022. Cell C's data shows that over a two day period - 4 May and 5 May 2022, Williams unwittingly connected to foreign network operators in Norway, the United Arab Emirates, and France.

Daily Maverick approached Cell C on Williams’ behalf in June 2022 and received the following response from Cell C chief operating officer Andre Ittmann: “Please note that thresholds and monthly usage limits apply to international roaming however there may be delays when imposing the limits due to delays in billing records being received from foreign networks.

“Cell C also cannot guarantee the accuracy of the limits set, or that such limits will be set timeously due to the delays from foreign networks. There may be up to a three (3) month delay in call, SMS and data charges reflecting on your statement due to the downloading of Call Data Records (CDR’s) from foreign networks.”

The cellphone operator’s final response to Daily Maverick on the matter was: “Cell C offers its customers payment arrangements to assist customers to pay off their bill.”

In its submission the National Consumer Tribunal, Cell C drew attention to the following clause in its contracts: “It is your responsibility to ensure you are familiar with the applicable international roaming rates, prior to your departure internationally. These rates may fluctuate from time to time due to exchange rates and foreign operator charges. Log onto Cell C's website to view the roaming rates of Cell C's roaming partners (www.cellc.co.za/cellc/international-roaming).”

Another clause clearly states: “When travelling overseas you will be charged for using the internet and using data which can be very expensive. Please refer to Cell C's website to view the data charges. We advise that you do not use data while you are roaming outside the borders of South Africa unless you are aware of the necessary data charges. Some networks can charge extremely high rates per megabyte."

A third clause highlights that: "There may be up to a three (3) month delay in call, SMS and data charges reflecting on your statement due to the downloading of Call Data Records (CDR's) from foreign networks.”

There was clearly a misunderstanding between Williams and the call centre operator she dealt with, but the Tribunal was crystal clear in its ruling. "When consumers take the necessary steps to set limits on their accounts, they often do so out of necessity and not enjoyment. They sacrifice the freedom to spend more than the limit but weigh this against the reassurance that they will not be financially prejudiced or become over-indebted. They do not expect to pay anything more than the set limit. Otherwise, setting a limit would serve no purpose. The Tribunal finds this provision in the respondent’s terms and conditions to be an unfair, unreasonable and unjust condition for entering a transaction with it. It is a clear attempt to unreasonably limit or waive its liability and shift the risk of dealing with its international partners to the consumer," the ruling states.

In handing down the ruling, the Tribunal further noted that "the contraventions committed by (Cell C) are serious as they disregarded numerous consumer rights while the respondent (Cell C) benefitted financially. Although there is only one applicant before the Tribunal in this matter, according to the respondent, its terms and conditions are standard, meaning that its conduct is not limited to this applicant, and its duration is continuous."

The scathing criticism of the Tribunal did not stop there: "The respondent (Cell C) disregarded consumer rights and the legislation enacted to protect consumers. It attempted to hide behind the costs imposed by foreign network operators and neglected to uphold the spirit and purpose of the Consumer Protection Act."

After a three-year fight, Williams finally found justice in the halls of the National Consumer Tribunal, which issued a groundbreaking judgment against Cell C. The cellphone provider was ordered to repay R7,480.32 to Williams, to pay her legal costs and cough up a fine of R500,000 payable to the National Revenue Fund.

Cellphone bill management 

Here’s how to keep your phone bill low when you travel:

• Look for the WiFi symbol ? and use it to connect to WhatsApp to send messages and make calls.


•  If you see this symbol on your phone ? it means you have connected to a cellphone tower and not WiFi.


• Buy a local e-sim in the country you are visiting. These usually come with some data and it is significantly cheaper than using roaming services.


• Make sure you read the fine print if you do decide to switch on the roaming option.


•  Turn off your data roaming: Go to cellphone settings ▶️ cellular data, and turn data roaming off. It looks a little different on an Android phone. Go to settings ▶️ connections  ▶️mobile networks ▶️  cellphone bill management data roaming and switch it off. Note, you could still get hit with call or text message charges if you have data roaming off, since it only protects you from using up data.


•  You can still connect to WiFi in airplane mode, and your cellphone charges will not accumulate. This is a tip I learnt while doing research for this article.

Finally, a pro tip for when you travel abroad and need to use Google Maps to navigate your trip. Use WiFi to go to Google Maps and find the place you are going to. Click on “more” at the bottom of the screen and then “download offline map”. Select the area you want to download maps for and you will have full access to Google Maps via the downloaded maps, wherever you are. DM