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Charity Ruzvidzo Business Reporter
THE Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) has commended mobile phone operators for reducing their tariffs following a directive by the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Potraz).
Potraz directed the mobile operators to slash their tariffs to 15 cents per minute from 23 cents across all networks effective January 1.
CCZ executive director Rosemary Siyachitema said consumers welcomed the downward review of tariffs.
“Consumers have been complaining about the high tariffs mobile phone operators were charging. According to a research done by Potraz, consumers were being overcharged by 30 percent. The reduction of tariffs was long overdue,” she said.
Siyachitema said the reduction would ease communication.
“The move to reduce tariffs will make communication easier. Consumers will be able to communicate for a longer period with just one dollar.
“Our tariffs are also going to match other African countries like South Africa which charges 16 cents per minute,” she said.
Subscribers calling on Telecel to Telecel will be charged 15 cents, Telecel to Econet 16 cents, Telecel to NetOne 16 cents and Telecel to Tel-One 16 cents.
NetOne to NetOne tariffs will be 15 cents per minute while across other networks; the charge will be 16 cents per minute.
The country’s leading telecommunications company, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, also indicated on its twitter account on January 1 that it had complied with the regulator’s directive.
“Please note tariffs have been reduced to 15cents per minute for Econet to Econet calls and 16 cents to local networks effective January 1, 2015,”read the twit.
Econet has also announced that it is ending the bundles of joy promotion.
The averages for other countries are 17 cents in Malawi and 15 cents in Tanzania and before the reduction, Zimbabwe’s charges were the highest in Southern Africa.
The tariff slashing directive was part of Potraz implementation of a new pricing structure called the Long Run Incremental Cost (LRIC) model presented in June 2014.
The new tariff framework, the regulator said, had been effected in direct response to an outcry from subscribers who felt the rates were high.
Potraz adopted the LRIC model to come up with call tariffs and abandoned the previously used Cositu model.
Cositu is software designed for calculating telephone service costs and is now outdated.
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