malvernmugadzikwa
Tapiwanashe Mangwiro
Local internet service providers have embarked on a tariff adjustment drive with some companies hiking by as much as 60 percent of the current price.
This comes as the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) granted a much needed headline tariff adjustment to telecommunications companies amid rising input costs.
ZOL told its customers that from July 14, their prices will be adjusted upwards by 60 percent as allowed by the regulator.
TelOne, the state-owned fixed telecommunications service provider, which last month warned that it was facing collapse due to non-cost reflective tariffs, adjusted its tariffs yesterday.
According to its new price schedule, TelOne’s 10 Gigabyte (GB) bundle has been reviewed upwards from $1 499 to $2 413, while a 100 GB package is now selling for $16 905, up from $10 500.
Briefing stakeholders at its Annual General Meeting in Harare recently, TelOne said it faced acute viability challenges due to the prevailing hyper-inflation on the back of tightly controlled tariffs.
“The cost of importation and distribution of 1 Mbps is US$28. However, TelOne is unsustainably distributing the same unit at US$10 as the company has been unable to get a tariff review,” the company said at the time.
In a notice to its customers, Econet Wireless, the largest of the three mobile network operators in Zimbabwe, said it will increase the price of its voice calls on Wednesday, from $10,01 per minute to $16,11 per minute. It said its short message service (SMS) will up to $3,31, from $1,79, while its ‘out of bun (undiscounted) data will now costs $2,55 per megabyte, up from $1,38 per megabyte.
The latest tariff review comes at a time when telecommunication companies have been pleading with the authorities to approve new tariffs to enable them to recover costs and generate more revenue for capital expenditure and expansion in the face of rising vandalism and increased power cuts.
The last headline tariff review for the telco industry was done close to a year ago, in September last year.
Bongani Ndlovu