By Gift Mashoko

Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) has refuted claims trending on social media portraying Zimbabwe as the most expensive country in terms of mobile data services.

The information which was circulating on social media claims that Zimbabwe tops the list of African countries in terms of their mobile data costs, with an average price of US$75.2 for 1GB, followed by Equatorial Guinea with US$65.83 for 1GB, whilst Sudan has the lowest of US$0.68 for 1GB

Part of the press statement reads, “In as much as the information is historical, the Authority would like to put it on record that it is a misrepresentation of the Zimbabwe situation even during the period it was published and as such, it should be dismissed with the contempt it deserves.”

POTRAZ went on to reveal the actual reviewed Out of Bundle mobile data tariff by Zimbabwean Mobile Network Operators.

“As a background to data tariff review, Zimbabwe Mobile Network Operators (MNO) reviewed the Out of Bundle mobile data tariffs from US$0.125 per MB to US$0.5 per MB without taxes on 1 July 2018.

“This tariff translates to about US$50 for 1GB of data. The out of data tariff is the normal cost based tariff that subscribers are charged when they are not accessing any data bundles. It ought to be underlined that data bundle rates cannot go beyond the Out of Bundle Tariffs,” POTRAZ said.

“The Authority reviewed tariffs in March 2019 which saw the out of bundle rate being reviewed to RTGS$0.5 per MB without taxes, this translates to RTGS$50 per MB. Given the movement in the exchange rate between the US and the RTGS which now stands at 1US$:RTGS3.2. The US tariff for the out of bundle data now stands at US$40.16 per MB or US$15.63 per 1GB of mobile data,” said the statement.

In comparison with other countries in the SADC region, POTRAZ gave out that Botswana has Out of Bundle cost of US$0.093 and price for 1GB in US$93, Lesotho has out of bundle US$0.022 and price for 1GB is at US$22, Mozambique has Out of Bundle Tariff of US$0.13 and price for 1GB US$130, whilst Zimbabwe has Out of Bundle of US$0.02 and price for 1GB is at US$20.

POTRAZ has also released figures comparing 1GB of mobile data using the Out of Data bundles prices extracted from the CRASA country reports for 2018 versus the price of 1GB as reported by www.cable.co.uk which is circulating on social media. Botswana’s price for 1GB is at US$93, 1GB price for circulating picture is at US$14.12, leaving a variance of -78.88.

 Lesotho’s price for 1GB is at US$22, 1GB price for circulating picture is at US$2.43, leaving a variance of -19.57, Mozambique’s price for 1GB is at US$130, 1GB price for circulating picture is at US$15.82 leaving a variance of -114.18 and Zimbabwe’s price for 1GB is at US$20 while 1GB price for circulating picture is at US$75.2 leaving a variance of 55.2.

POTRAZ has therefore found it necessary to put it on record that the mobile data tariff in Zimbabwe is comparable to those obtaining in other SADC countries. The Authority stated that the circulating report understated the out of bundle data prices per GB for some countries in SADC and overstated the Out of bundle data price per GB for Zimbabwe by US$55. They went on to say that this raises questions on the authenticity of the data that was used.

According to POTRAZ, the current price of 1GB of mobile data for Zimbabwe is among the lowest in the region in US$ terms. POTRAZ urges stakeholders to contact the Director General of the Authority when undertaking studies on the ICT sector and equally so for consumers to verify information with the Authority should the need arise.