Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) has dismissed reports that Zimbabwe has the most expensive data service in the world.
According to the report, a gigabyte of data in Zimbabwe costs $75.20.
However, POTRAZ in a press statement dismissed the report saying it did not represent Zimbabwe’s situation even during the period the article was published.
“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,” said POTRAZ.
“As a background to data tariffs review, Zimbabwean Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) reviewed the Out of Bundle mobile data tariffs from US$0.125 per MB to US$ 0.05 per MB without taxes on 1 July 2018. This tariff translates to about US$50 for 1GB of data.
“The Out of Bundle tariff is the normal cost based tariff that subscribers are charged when they are not accessing any data bundles. It ought to be underlined that data bundle rates cannot go beyond the Out of Bundle tariffs,” added the telecoms mother body.
POTRAZ noted that the reviewed data tariffs this year in March made Zimbabwe one of the cheapest data service providers in Southern Africa.
“Furthermore, the authority reviewed tariffs in March 2019 which saw the Out of Bundle rate being reviewed to RTGS$ 0.05 per MB without taxes. This translates to about RTGS$50 per MB.
“Given the movement in the exchange rate between the US$ and the RTGS$, which now stands at 1US$: RTGS$ 3.2, the US$ tariff for the Out of Bundle data now stands at US$0.016 per MB or US$15.63 for 1GB of mobile data,” said POTRAZ.
