These data bundles from Econet, NetOne & Telecel are set to be scrapped or to go up in price soon

Nigel Gambanga Avatar
Samsung S6, Smartphone, Mobile telecoms, flagship devices,

Zimbabwean telecoms regulator POTRAZ has set new floor prices for voice and data bundles, with effect from the 9th of January 2017.

POTRAZ’s directive to mobile operators is to adjust their pricing accordingly which means that a number of packages that subscribers had been using for a cheaper data experience are going to either be scrapped or their prices are going to go up.

At 2 cents per megabyte (MB) (that’s the floor price for data) packages like Econet’s 250 MB daily bundle which currently costs $1 will have to be priced at a minimum of $5 and Telecel’s 150 MB daily bundle will set you back at least $3.

Over the next few days, all three mobile operators – Econet, NetOne and Telecel  – have to make changes to their data bundles so subscribers can expect the following to either go up in price to meet the new minimums or be done away with completely.

Econet Wireless

Daily Bundles 

  • 50 cents – 50 MB
  • $1 – 250 MB
  • $2 – 1 GB
  • $3 – 2 GB

Telecel

Daily Bundles

  • $1  – 150 MB
  • $2 – 500 MB

NetOne

The entire OneFusion lineup. (It will likely lose some of its data offerings which are a core part of the package)

What about WhatsApp and Facebook bundles?

A lot of questions have been raised about how the new floor prices affect WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter bundles. The information available so far hasn’t been clear about this and all three mobile operators plus POTRAZ are yet to release any official communication on this.

Some sources from the mobile operators who we spoke to mentioned that there is some consultation going on right now on how these popular products will be adjusted in response to the POTRAZ directive.

6 comments

  1. Kay bee

    i actually thought you were going to state the exact data price that was given by potraz, how then do we know its going to be expensive or cheap? after all the minister Supa is always on record saying our data price is very high. I think you did not thoroughly research.

    1. Nigel Gambanga

      The price is 2c per MB. As stated in the article.

  2. Tapiwa

    So all this investment on LTE for more expensive data, arent we moving backwards as a nation? The market will simply more towards FTTH and public wifi and forget about MNO data . The only people people who are ti gain from this is Econet because they own ZOL and Liquid.

  3. Ndashaya Munyati

    Surely the regulator (POTRAZ) should only be concerned with setting MAXIMUM prices to protect the consumer. No operator wants to sell too cheaply, as they will eventually go bust.

    Let the market determine the MINIMUM price, and let the regulator protect us from profiteering!

  4. Mambo Dendera

    The regulator serves its master who is the gvt! Considering that the gvt coffers are dwindling it becomes an imperative that cash-cows like Potraz come to the rescue. The “cheap” data packages meant poor collections for the regulator and gvt. This is just the beginning of the collapse of the ICT industry…..

  5. ken

    Mobile operators will lose a lot business, increases are just to high 500% +

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