Zimbabwe’s media organisation says mobile data prices remain exorbitant despite recent reduction by government

By Wallace Mawire

Zimbabwe’s Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has responded to recent announcement by Minister of ICT and Cyber Security Supa Mandiwanzira, of an almost 60%  reduction in the cost of mobile data saying the prices remain exorbitant and are beyond the reach of many.

   According to the minister, currently a megabyte of data in Zimbabwe costs a minimum of 12,5 cents. With effect from 1 July, a megabyte will cost 5 cents. A megabyte is a unit of measure for data.

 The minister was speaking at a press briefing organised by the Postal and Telecommunications  Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (‘POTRAZ’). According to the minister, this reduction in mobile Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (‘POTRAZ’). According to the minister, this reduction in mobile data prices is the result of the government sponsored Long Run Incremental Cost (LRIC) programme  which looked at pricing models in the mobile communications market.

  MISA says that in reality though, a megabyte will cost more than 5 cents after including tax and other airtime levies.

   The concerned media organisation says that it should be noted that the reduction only applies to out-of-bundle mobile data. This is mobile data which is not tied to a particular service such as WhatsApp, Facebook, or Twitter. Other examples of bundled data include OneFusion data, or data bundle plans sold by Telecel and Econet respectively.

   According to MISA-Zimbabwe, the reduction is a welcome development, but the majority of mobile phone users will not benefit from the reduction.

  “This is because a large portion of Zimbabwe’s mobile phone users’ access mobile data in the form of bundles and other promotional bundles,” MISA Zimbabwe said.

  Speaking at the same occasion the minister also announced a reduction in the transaction costs of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (‘USSD’) based services. USSD services are popularly used to access mobile money platforms such as Ecocash, OneWallet or mobile banking platforms that are sometimes commonly referred to as “mbudzi” banking in the country’s popularised vernacular language to imply a small gadget.Using these USSD platforms to access various services currently costs   12,5 cents per Transaction.

  “These charges are pushed directly to the consumer. This explains the high charges associated with services such as Ecocash,” MISA said.MISA added that with effect from 1 July, accessing the service will cost 5 cents per transaction.   It is reported that the reduction in USSD service charges will be of benefit to a wider audience because cash shortages have forced most Zimbabweans to turn to   mobile banking  and mobile payments to transact.

  Also  the national interconnection rate will be reduced from 4 cents per minute to 2 cents per  minute, which is  exclusive of taxes and levies.

  MISA says that the price reductions do not include mobile voice and SMS charges or Internet data charges of data sold by Internet Access Providers such as ZOL,Powertel  or TelOne.

  “ In what might be a case of compensating for this forced reduction in mobile data pricing, ZOL  announced a 5% increase in the pricing of its Fibroniks packages with effect from 1 August 2018,” MISA added.

   “While MISA Zimbabwe welcomes government’s efforts to reduce mobile data costs, the reduced mobile data price remains exorbitant. According to the Alliance 4 Affordable Internet, Internet is affordable when 1 gigabyte costs 4% of the average monthly income. Under the current pricing model, a gigabyte will cost a minimum of $50, which remains beyond the reach of most Zimbabweans,” MISA Zimbabwe said.