Telcos hike tariffs by more than 30%

THE Postal and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) has granted telecom operators the go ahead to increase out-of-bundle tariffs by an average of 30 percent as the industry continues to battle rising input costs.

State-owned mobile network operator NetOne was the first to adjust its charges on Sunday while Econet Wireless Zimbabwe and TelOne have indicated that they will adjust their headline tariffs tomorrow.

Zimbabwe's telcos have been marginally adjusting prices for promotional bundles but headline tariffs had not been reviewed since September 2020 despite a general rise in prices of goods and services over the past 12 months.

Information Communication and Technology (ICT) Minister, Dr Jenfan Muswere, recently told Parliament that the telecommunications sector was struggling to secure much-needed foreign currency from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) auction system for infrastructure investment, capital expenditure and  servicing of rising external debt which is now more than US$1 billion across the industry.

"The foreign currency requirements of these companies is so huge that it cannot fully be obtained through the auction system," said Minister Muswere.

According to the latest price schedule, NetOne's 10 gigabyte (GB) will now cost ZW$2 500, up from ZW$2 000 while 25GB of data has been pegged at ZW$4 250, up from ZW$3 500. A 50GB data package now costs ZW$6 250, up from ZW$5 000.

At the same time, TelOne's new voice tariffs for landline-to-landline calls have been reviewed upwards to ZW$6,34 per minute for local calls, while landline-to-mobile tariffs are now going for ZW$7,38 per minute.

The State-owned fixed network provider's 10GB residential broadband bundle has risen from ZW$1 082 to ZW$1 499, and a 20GB bundle for corporate use now costs ZW$2 698, up from ZW$1 948.

Zimbabwe's largest mobile network operator Econet Wireless, also adjusted its voice bundles from ZW$0.1070 per second to ZW$0.1668, and SMS has been reviewed to ZW$2.05 from ZW$1.64. The company's data bundles have been increased to ZW$1.58 per megabyte (MB), up from the previous figure of ZW$1.26 per MB.

Potraz director general, Dr Gift Machengete, recently said the country's telecommunications operators needed heavy capital investments in order to remain relevant, especially at a time demand for ICTs has surged due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The necessity for greater investment in digital technologies, skills, resilience and innovation can never be overemphasised," he said.

Dr Machengete further indicated that foreign currency shortages were having a significant impact on the sector, and urged the Government to find ways of helping the telcos.