Zimbabwean telecoms regulator POTRAZ has set new floor prices for voice and data bundles, with effect from the 9th of January 2017.
POTRAZ’s directive to mobile operators is to adjust their pricing accordingly which means that a number of packages that subscribers had been using for a cheaper data experience are going to either be scrapped or their prices are going to go up.
At 2 cents per megabyte (MB) (that’s the floor price for data) packages like Econet’s 250 MB daily bundle which currently costs $1 will have to be priced at a minimum of $5 and Telecel’s 150 MB daily bundle will set you back at least $3.
Over the next few days, all three mobile operators – Econet, NetOne and Telecel – have to make changes to their data bundles so subscribers can expect the following to either go up in price to meet the new minimums or be done away with completely.
Econet Wireless
Daily Bundles
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50 cents – 50 MB
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$1 – 250 MB
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$2 – 1 GB
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$3 – 2 GB
Telecel
Daily Bundles
$1 – 150 MB
$2 – 500 MB
NetOne
The entire OneFusion lineup. (It will likely lose some of its data offerings which are a core part of the package)
What about WhatsApp and Facebook bundles?
A lot of questions have been raised about how the new floor prices affect WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter bundles. The information available so far hasn’t been clear about this and all three mobile operators plus POTRAZ are yet to release any official communication on this.
Some sources from the mobile operators who we spoke to mentioned that there is some consultation going on right now on how these popular products will be adjusted in response to the POTRAZ directive.
- Techzim