Econet Wireless Zimbabwe is apparently selling the Samsung Galaxy I9000 for US $6,000 on contract. At least that’s what their website says. An obersevant Twitter user @munron43 posted his shock at the prices earlier this afternoon:
@Techzim @SirNige is this correct? econet.co.zw/devices #EconetThe prices are just wrong!! cc @econetzimbabwe@kwirirayi
— ronald (@munron43) April 25, 2012
The phone, along with other phones, is being sold on contract, with the amount payable over 2 years in $250 monthly installments. The page doesn’t say what else you get in addition to the phone so we’re assuming it’s mobile broadband (MBB) data.
The going price for the phone at one of Zimbabwe’s most visible mobile retailers LM Cellphones is US $480. If we subtract that amount, we are left with about $230 a month for mobile broadband. Again, MBB here is just an assumption. Now, if you check the Econet Mobile Broadband ‘On The Go’ tariffs page, you’ll see that the lowest In-bundle price per megabyte for data is 7.5 cents. The $230 will therefore buy you a little more than 3GB a month ‘on the house’.
So a safe assumption for now is that for $6,000 you will get a ‘free’ Galaxy I9000 phone and 3GB data a month for 2 years!
We tried contacting Econet to establish the facts and so far we haven’t received a response and the prices on the website remain unchanged. We’ll update this story once we get a response from them.
Some of you will remember Econet pulled an almost similar stunt last year. Then, it was $1,200 spread over 2 years for a free Nokia 2330 and 4 hours of airtime a month.
Update: Got a response from Econet. An update has been posted here. Basically, you pay $250 every month for 2 years and in exchange you get $250 worth of voice calls, SMS and data. Phone is free.
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21 comments
I will keep checking in to see if you can get a response on this. No wonder why Econet is recording such ridiculously high profits, its satanic!
what the hell!!!! not 1 2 3 4 5 but 6000!!!??? this is simply beyond preposterous… the one at LM is probably just a knockoff though…
its a rip off, its $250 a month or $6000 over 2 years. Its cheaper to get someone in USA or UK to buy it for you for cash. It costs £300 cash in UK for example, which is $500.
This includes $250 of voice, SMS or data each month. So the phone is free.
its not free at all there is a catch,,,, we a re being forced to use $250 a month for the services they offer…
Serious government intervention would help control this kind of maddness, how do they justify selling gadgets that old for so much when nearly on a monthly basis a new device gets launched, the galaxy SIII (may or may not be the name) is just around the corner this will be a flagship Samsung Phone which will never go even for a contract in the US for $200 per month for 24 months. Unfortunately there is nothing to challenge the econet monopoly and there is no threat to thier license so they get away with just about anything, and act like middle men who put mark up’s on goods they come across.
The question that comes to mind is just how innovative is econet and how much innovation can they take credit for in this lovely land of ours, to me very little then again this is my 2 cents…
What is a Samsung GaLLaxy??
definitely a typo!
I figured, of course. But it speaks volumes of the quality of the people creating and maintaining the ads and the site
Econet is full of B*** s***
Total madness!!If this is true..Who in a struggling economy can put such funds in a Cellphone?Come on guys…This gotta be a joke….Seriouslyyyyyyyyyyy…..
l have always said it. Potraz is a waste of money toothless dog. Recently it came out defending these money grabbing SPs saying there is no need to review prices down, how did they came to such a conclusion
$100 should be the absolute maximum asking, and that for top of the line phones, not some just alright Android phone. What I fail to understand is how any of the exisiting contract/package ideas survived even the earliest presentation stages. On “the Apprentice” the very suggestion would have guaranteed you a sacking.
Please go back to the site and check again, The phone is being offered for free as gift if u are on thier business patna (contrac line). Don’t mislead pple, research before you denounce other pple.
they are right it is $250 pass by any econet shop stop support these theives
A sumsung Galaxy s3 which was released this past week is costing only ZAR8 500 on a 12month contract, what the fuck are these guys talking about?
$250 worth of voice calls, SMS and data means nothing. You need to quantify what exactly you are getting i.e. 500 minutes a month, 100 SMS message or 1GB internet allowance.
25c a minuta 15c per megabyte out of bundle and 10c in bundle no promo here