Econet contract subscribers have paid more for broadband all along!

L.S.M Kabweza Avatar

Econet BroadbandIf you’re like us you probably assumed the new Econet data tariffs announced in March applied to all subscribers, pre and post paid. Not so! Those only apply to prepaid subscribers. The contract customers – that small but loyal and very high value category – were actually paying more for their data all along. You’d think the loyal guys would actually get lower rates!

An advert by Econet in the print press today announced the new rates for contract subscribers with the selling point “get double the data!”. So basically yes, the bundles have basically been doubled. here’s the comparison of the new to the old:

Price Old Bundle size Old bundle rate New Bundle Size New Bundle price per MB
$8 100 MB 8 cents 200 MB 4 cents
$9 125 MB 7.2 cents 250 MB 3.6 cents
$19 250 MB 7.6 cents 500 MB 3.8 cents
$45 600 MB 7.5 cents 1.2 GB 3.8 cents
$75 1 GB 7.5 cents 2 GB 3.8 cents
$90 1.2 GB 7.5 cents 2.3 GB 3.9 cents

Now to compare the new contract rates to the pre-paid tariffs. The dash means that package doesn’t have a bundle of that size.

Bundle Size Prepaid  – Price per MB Contract – Price per MB
10 MB 10 cents
80 MB 6.3 cents
200 MB 5 cents 4 cents
250 MB 3.6 cents
500 MB 4 cents 3.8 cents
1 GB 3.5 cents
1.2 GB 3.8 cents
2 GB 3.8 cents
2.3 GB 3.9 cents
2.5 GB 2 cents –           

On why the disparity all along, a source at the company has told us its because the new prepaid rates are actually just a promo and that contract subscribers were just not part of the promo. The kind that will eventually become the default price.

Even though post paid customers are a very higher value category, they still comprise just a small percentage of the total subscribers locally on any network. Less than 10% of the mobile subscribers locally are post-paid.

10 comments

  1. Time

    “a source at the company has told us its because the new prepaid rates are actually just a promo”

    Whoaaah there!!….so they’re saying $1 for 10MB is a “promo” and that in fact we should be grateful for such prices!? I guess the future for fair mobile data prices is bleaker than I thought. I mean heaven forbid the general masses be able to afford a gig of data at the hands of econet.

    1. Ring Wraith

      The $1 bundle, if I recall correctly, was not touched. The promo just applied to the bundles after that.

      1. L.S.M. Kabweza

        thanks for the contribution @Ring

    2. Menard

      Yesterday I was at pain trying to explain to one of my collegues why his $5 worth of data has just disappeared on his laptop, Checking the even viewer it was only one succesful Mcafee update! and he asked, ” So should I disable it?” O said oh no you cant because it is essential and he was like, so everytime this McAfee of yours successfully download, I will loose my $5 and my answers was yes, it could be more if your connection is interrupted!

      I havent included MS Widows and office updates here! That how u can practically see how expensive this mobile bandwidth is, really thse providers should do something about this!

      1. Skull Leader

        As I use my phone to connect my pc to the net, I’ve had to jump through a few hoops to keep costs down (maybe techzim can do a short piece with tips).

        -Disabled windows updates. Service packs and such will just have to wait.

        -Installed avira free. You can get a utility that creates and maintains a manual update file, adding definitions as it goes. Of course, this is only useful if you have somewhere to download it like the office (sorry boss!)

        -Disabled automatic updates on all other software

        -Use opera as my main browser. It has a ‘turbo’ mode that compresses data like opera mini but beware, it has a tendency of switching this mode off when the network is ‘fast’. I also turn off images in the browser, you’d be surprised how well you can get along without them on many websites

        -Installed an Ubuntu partition because running windows unpatched is a bit of a gamble online (I just install the latest Ubuntu from PC Format’s cover discs). I assume its not as targeted by malware and acts as insurance in case my machine gets attacked.

        Such small things add up to a little more mileage on my connection but yes, these providers need to bring down these punitive costs.

  2. Zig Ziglar

    I liked the “just a promo” part…kwakwakwakwa Econet is really a humorous company! I should have added that econet is full of humour on my article here…

    http://zimsmartphones.wordpress.com/2013/07/03/why-i-hate-telecel-econet-and-netone/

    1. Ntando

      your link is private??? Like really?

      1. Zig Ziglar

        Not really, I was just updating something and I forgot to turn it on…thanks for the notification.

  3. Huck Finn

    EcoThieves

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