Econet unveils new steep mobile data tariffs

The floor prices for voice and mobile data bundles proposed by Zimbabwean telecoms regulator, POTRAZ, which have been the subject of a lot of debate this past week have now been put into effect.

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, the country's largest mobile network operator has been the first to make changes. It has adjusted its product lineup and unveiled a set of new tariffs for its bundles as well as the WhatsApp and Facebook bundles. As was anticipated the costs are pretty steep.

You can view the bundles by dialling *143# on Econet

With effect from the 11th of January 2017, the cheapest bundle of data (5 MB on a standard connection plus another 5 MB available on WiFi) now costs 50 cents.

$1 will get you 10 MB plus the bonus 10 MB on WiFi and the highest amount of data you can get (2.5 GB plus 2.5 GB bonus on WiFi) now costs $50.

Social Media bundles, that is the WhatsApp and Facebook bundles that have been the cheapest avenue for partial internet access have also gone up and from the looks of things are no longer pegged individually or as weekly or monthly offerings but are instead based on data usage.

The cheapest bundle is also set at 50 cents and it comes with 10 MB of data plus a 10 MB bonus. For $2.50 (which is close to what subscribers used to pay for month's access) you'll now get 80 MB plus an extra 80 MB on WiFi.

Regular Data Bundles

Price            Bundle
50 cents         5 MB
$1                10 MB
$3                50 MB
$5              125 MB
$10             300 MB
$20             750 MB
$35             1.5 GB
$50             2.5 GB