Data Pricing!

The recent Monetary Policy Statement saw the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) doing away with the 1:1 valuation of the bond notes against the US dollar. The statement implied that the RTGS dollar would trade against the US dollar at 2.50. The Old Mutual Implicated Rate (OMIR) is at 4.60 according to https://omir.today/. Whilst on the informal markets the RTGS dollar is trading at 3.60 against the US dollar.

Earlier in year the President announced the increase of fuel price going up over 200%. This has seen prices of basic commodities and beverages going up as well as the cost of importing goods.

With these economy developments were do the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) stand in Zimbabwe?

Over the years data price in Zimbabwe have been ranked amongst the highest in the world. A study done by Pan African financial institution, EcoBank revealed that Zimbabwe was the second most expensive after Equatorial Guinea. However, with the introduction of the RTGS dollar, the price of data in Zimbabwe has become cheap as the prices have remained constant despite these developments. Pegging the tariffs against the US dollar implies that the data prices in Zimbabwe has become relatively lower compared to other countries in the world as revealed by a recent survey.

Using the OMIR data has become cheaper in Zimbabwe compared to other African States like South Africa and Malawi. For example 1Gb of data from Vodacom is at 149Rands which is around USD 10, whilst in Zimbabwe the same bundle from Econet is around USD5. The Survey showed Zimbabwe’s biggest mobile operator Econet Wireless ranking 8th amongst the 17 countries in Africa sampled according to http://techunzipped.com.

This may be in a positive light for the consumer, however, can the MNOs continue operating with these low rates, considering that most of their vendors are foreign namely Ericsson and ZTE and require their payment in hard currency? Are they high up on the priority list at the RBZ to get foreign currency to pay vendors?

If the rates remain this low how will this affect the quality of service the consumers will get in the near future? Considering that everything has gone up in the country it is only imperative that the regulator Potraz review the mobile data tariffs upwards. Reports say that the MNOs have since approached the regulator for the tariffs to be reviewed.

Ericsson and ZTE and require their payment in hard currency? Are they high up on the priority list at the RBZ to get foreign currency to pay vendors?

If the rates remain this low how will this affect the quality of service the consumers will get in the near future? Considering that everything has gone up in the country it is only imperative that the regulator Potraz review the mobile data tariffs upwards. Reports say that the MNOs have since approached the regulator for the tariffs to be reviewed.