By Noble Ncube
The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) has approved a 6,6 percent increase in mobile cellular voice calls and other related services after recommendations from operators who have been demanding a review citing operational challenges.
Potraz, in a statement said calls per minute have been increased by a cent from 15 cents to 16 cents with effect from 1 January.
The telephone regulator also said national calls to mobile network will be pegged at the same rate.
It said net on net SMS will now be charged at five cents and the same will apply for cross network messages.
“The above cited charges are in line with the Notice on Revised Implementation of Results of Long Run Incremental Costing (LRIC) Cost Studies Glide Path Regulatory Notice Number 5 of 2015, that was issued to all operators on 2 December 2015.
“The revised implementation takes into account the five percent excise duty that was introduced on telecommunication services, the increase in Universal Service Fund (USF) levy from 0,5 percent to 1,5 percent as well as the reduction in the national interconnection rate from USD0,05 to USD$0,04.
“Any person, who is charged in excess of the thresholds indicated above, should lodge a complaint with Potraz using any of the contact details listed below,” said Potraz.
In 2014 telecommunication operators disputed a considerable tariff reduction of 11 cents initiated by Potraz. The voice tariffs were reduced from 26 cents to 15 cents per minute.
Operators highlighted the move as one of the major causes for reduced revenues that the industry players experienced over the past year.
Due to these concerns, a follow-up reduction of tariffs which was scheduled for the end of 2015 was suspended only to be replaced by the one cent increase.
The regulator body said charges for the rest of other chargeable services shall be as advertised by the mobile operators.
Mobile phone users have been complaining over the rates local operators are charging saying they were way above regional levels.
They have also been complaining over charges for social media. For example Econet charges its customers $3 (R50) for use of a light Whatsapp facility while in South Africa customers just pay R5 for the same facility per month.
This means Econet’s rates are 10 times more than what is charged in South Africa. However, access to Internet using local networks is also way expensive compared to regional levels. Sunday News
