New roaming tariffs released

The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) has come up with a new roaming tariffs structure as part of the roll out of the SADC home and away roaming glide paths pilot project.

According to a notice issued by POTRAZ, the new tariffs, which will apply from the 1st of September, will see customers on roaming paying a maximum of US28 cents per minute on call within Namibia, US34 cents in Botswana and US86 cents in Zambia.

Calls back home from Namibia will attract a maximum of US53 cents from an average of US73 cents per minute, while phoning back home from Botswana will attract a maximum charge of US$1,19 per minute.

POTRAZ Head Economics, Tariffs and Competition, Mrs Hilda Mutseyekwa said the authority is happy with the positive response from both the local and regional mobile operators who will be involved in the roll out of the project.

The new tariffs, which will apply to all licensed mobile network operators in Zimbabwe for all roaming services, is part of the SADC home and away roaming programme aimed at reducing roaming charges in line with the regional integration drive.

Policy makers from Botswana, Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe agreed to implement the SADC home and away roaming initiative as a pilot project prior to the 1st of October 2015 implementation deadline set by the SADC ministers responsible for ICT, Postal and Courier services.