Chronicle Editor
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
THE Postal and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) recently approved a 100 percent tariff increase for telecommunication services in the local currency, while the US dollar tariffs remain unchanged.
In a statement, Potraz director-general, Dr Gift Machengete said: “The new tariff thresholds are applicable to services denominated in ZWL, which is the currency to which all tariffs for telecommunication services are pegged. Service packages that are denominated in USD will not be adjusted as the USD currency has remained relatively stable. Accordingly, any service providers that adjust their USD denominated service packages will be charging unapproved tariffs and will be liable to a fine. All such violations of licence conditions should be reported to Potraz for immediate action.”
He said the recent review of tariff thresholds for telecommunication services was triggered by changes in the costs of providing data. Dr Machengete said this was reflected in the movement of the Telecommunication Price Index (TPI), which was used to track the cost of providing telecommunication services in ZWL terms.
“The TPI increased by 528,14 percent from January to June 2023. The TPI is an internationally recognised and widely used cost-based tariff model. Significant cost movements were registered for foreign currency denominated costs such as foreign exchange losses, depreciation which increased in tandem with exchange rate depreciation.”
He said bandwidth cost increased by 200 percent, from ZWL8 billion in December 2022 to ZWL 23,8 billion in June 2023, while software licence fees, fuel, and spares for network maintenance, local costs such as staff costs increased by 582 percent. Dr Machengete said other costs such as marketing, stationery, advertising and rentals increased due to inflationary pressure.
“Resultantly, the tariff thresholds that were set in April 2023 were rendered unviable and fell below regional averages. For example, the mobile voice tariff of ZWL94,41 (2 USD cents) per minute, was below the regional average tariff of 9 USD cents, The mobile Internet/data tariff of ZWL14,93 (0,32 USD cents) per Megabyte (MB) was also below the regional average tariff of 4,61 USD cents. Hence the intervention of the regulator to review tariff thresholds by 100 percent, which is way below the 528,14/ percent movement of the TPI. This was done in the interest of balancing service affordability and operator viability.”
Meanwhile, Dr Machengete said information that Zimbabwe had the most expensive data tariff in the world was misleading.
“Finally, we continue to come across posts purporting to draw evidence from a UK website, Cable.co.uk that Zimbabwe has the most expensive data tariff in the world at USD 43,75 per Gigabyte (GB). We reiterate that this is not only false but misleading and malicious. As a matter of fact, and contrary to that report, Zimbabwe has the lowest data tariff in the Sadc Region, with an out of bundle tariff of ZWL14 930,00 which translates to USD3,21 per GB at the September 2023 official exchange rate, while the Sadc average is at USD4,60. Therefore, the public is encouraged to seek clarification from Potraz whenever in doubt.”
Bongani Ndlovu