Staff Writer
Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) reiterated that Zimbabwe has the lowest data tariff in the SADC region, with an out of bundle tariff of ZWL14.930.00 which translates to USD 3.21 per Gigabyte at the September 2023 official exchange rate, while the SADC average is at USD4.60.
In a statement Sunday POTRAZ said the intervention of the regulator to review tariff thresholds by 100 percent is way below the 528.14 precent movement of the Telecommunication Price Index (TPI).
The TPI is an internationally recongnised and widely used cost-based tariff model.
“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 tariffs in the world at USD 43.75 per Gigabyte (BG).
“We reiterate that this is not only false but misleading and malicious. As a matter of fact, and contrary to that report, Zimbabwe had the lowest data tariff in the SADC region, with an out of bundle tariff of ZWL14.930.00 which translates to USD 3.21 per GB at the September 2023 official exchange rate, while the SADC average is at USD4.60,” POTRAZ said.
“Hence the intervention of the regulator to review tariff thresholds by 100 percent which is way below the 528.14 precent movement of the TPI. This was done in the interest of balancing service affordability and operator viability.”
POTRAZ recently approved new tariff thresholds for telecommunication services.
The new tariff thresholds are applicable to services denominated in ZWL, which is the currently to which all tariffs for telecommunication services are pegged.
Service packages that are denominated in USD will not be adjusted as the USD currently has remained relatively stable.
“Accordingly, any service providers that adjust their USD denominated service package will be charging unapproved traffic and will be liable to a fine. All such violations of licence conditions should be reported to POTRAZ for immediate action.
The recent review of traffic thresholds for telecommunication services was triggered by the steep depreciation of the ZWL of 738.75 percent against the USD from USD1:ZWL684.33 in December 2022, to USD1: ZWL5,739,80 in June 2023.
This was reflected in the movement of the Telecommunication Price Index (TPI), which is used to track the cost of providing telecommunication service in ZWL terms. The TPI increased by 528.14 percent from January to June 2023.
“Significant cost movements were registered for foreign currency denominated costs such as foreign exchange losses, depreciation which increased in tandem with exchange rate depreciation, bandwidth cost which increased by 200 percent from ZWL8 billion in December 2022 to ZWL23.8 billion in June 2023, software licence fees, fuel, and spares for network maintenance.
“Local costs such as staff costs increased by 582 percent whilst other costs such as marketing, stationary, advertising and rentals increased due to inflationary pressure spurred by the depreciation of the local currency.
“Resultantly, the tariff thresholds that were set in April 2023 were rendered unviable and fell below regional averages. For example, the mobile voice tariff at ZWL9441 (2USD cents) per minute, was below the regional average tariff of 9 USD cents. The mobile internet/data tariff of ZWL1493 (0.32 USD cents) per Megabyte (MB) was also below the regional average tariff of 4.61 USD cents,” the regulator said.
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