Telecel makes its internet more expensive, reduces daily data bundles allowance by half & frustrates subscribers

Nigel Gambanga Avatar
Telecel internet, mobile broadband, 3G dongle, Huawei dongle,

Here’s something that Telecel broadband subscribers have already noticed over the past few days – the mobile network operator adjusted its daily data bundles before Christmas, reducing the data allowance on its daily bundles by half.

Subscribers are now getting 150 MB of data for a US$1 subscription, down from 300 MB and $2 is now worth 500 MB from the previous 1 GB. The bundles are still valid for 24 hours.

Predictably the adjustment hasn’t been welcomed by subscribers with some taking to social media to vent their frustrations and question the mobile operator which hadn’t flighted adverts with the updated packages on its Facebook page.

The Facebook post that has attracted negative comments

Outside bundled Over the Top services like WhatsApp and Facebook bundles Zimbabwe has some of the most expensive mobile broadband packages in Africa with daily data bundles like the ones that Telecel has adjusted providing a sense of “affordable data”.

A reduction of the data from Telecel lowers the value proposition of the same bundles and positions its competition -Econet and NetOne – as better mobile broadband providers.

Considering how Telecel is currently struggling to maintain and grow active users (it’s also stuck as the smallest mobile operator in Zimbabwe) and how mobile broadband growth is now a key part of telecoms revenue growth as voice declines, this is a misstep that its competitors will probably capitalise on.

16 comments

  1. SoftwareGlitch

    Cry my beloved zim..hope my Econet wont follow suit

    1. fourwallsinaroom

      Econet did follow suit. 1Gb per day is now $2 wasnt it $1 once upon a time..

  2. tendai katsuwa

    Going backwards?

  3. esc

    hope they are going to give us weekly and monthly bundles wc are cheaper.

  4. Langton

    They are the only MNO still on 3G. I will really strugle to find a reason for staying with them1

  5. Macd Chip

    Whereas l feel the pain of users here, but cheaper data bundles, although good to users, is expensive to telco.

    The situation where Telecel is now is not good at all. It was always under invested and being taken over by the government is not going to make its fortunes better any time soon.

    Telecel needs money to invest, even if they approach the banks for loans, they will need to convince the banks that they can generate enough cash to meet repayments and still able to operate.

    I sense the only way they can do that now is to adjust their bundles as they cannot do much on voice calls since Potraz put a cap on call charges.

    1. Anonymous

      Very strange reasoning. Setting your prices high will give you a high profit per transaction but you will hardly make that many transactions. Overall your revenues could actually decline.

      1. Macd Chip

        I do agree with you. Where as data revenues are growing, the overal revenues for telcos are declining. This is being caused by OTT and global economy which is not in good shape. No invester is willing to splash cash in long term invesments like telcos industry which force them to eat what they grow or borrow from expensive bank loans.

  6. man Fidza

    i understand their need of money but they are being over zealous in their quest for profitability.After this reduction they will be called the smallest and the most expensive MNO in terms of data purchases.The question is are their speeds,coverage,reliability and technology more special than Econet and Netone?

  7. TechHub Zim

    On the last customer session we attended at Potraz they mentioned getting rid of bundles but Netone and Telecel suggested putting a price floor on all campaigns to prevent price wars by the MNO so I sence this is the beginning of and end to cheap data in Zimbabwe. Maybe Telecel is complying to the new price floor whuch Econet and Netone will follow suit in a few days. So watch this space POTRAZ will make an announcement, I can imagine being on Econet LTE and getting charged 15c/mb hahahaha.

  8. IMARA

    Look Telecel had been for sale for the past two years or so and during that time there was no investment from the shareholders nor the interested parties, and from a financial perspective no one would be willing to lend money to something that’s under the hummer. The only way they can make money is reduce those freebies and start monetizing there data. Voice traffic is going down globally and Econet recorded massive decline in revenues largely from voice so they need to monetize the data to cover up for the ailing voice traffic and manage ROI. People want things for free but neglect to understand at what cost they come at from the MNO side. These companies are suffering, 1billion investment for Econet, 600million investment for Netone and Zero investment for Telecel. Let’s cut them a break.

    1. Macd Chip

      Bt being bought by a gvt which is well known for changing rules to suit political agenda is not going to help them, it actually put them in a worse place than before there were bought. We have exhausted our “All weather friends” generosity, just look at how the loan from China was used at NetOne.

    2. BTM

      I think Telecel is really in a tight position financially and the govt transaction was driven more by greed rather than business sense.I would assume that they dropped several millions and lost out substantially on the gvt contract.They are now faced with the reality of meeting salaries and at the same time expanding their network to catch up with the other players.

      The way i see it there are still ownership issues still to be resolved at Telecel and those are not going to disappear overnight.Eventually the gvt might be forced to merge telecel with netone,just my thinking.Either way you look at it i think there are going to be job losses at telecel.

  9. Kevin

    I called POTRAZ to inquire about the change that Telecel made to the daily data bundles and the response was that Telecel is going in line with some new regulated price floor and they are taking action against Netone and Econet for not complying. Guys we are in shit, I hope it’s not the same for ISPs. Potraz needs to advertise these laws so that the customer does not expect too much from a service.

  10. Tee Mujumaina

    Telecel was my favourite for a couple of yrs…. Its really painful that find themselves in this shit.. Saying our goodbye soon

  11. BeenLoyal_to_Telecel

    Some times i think Telecel is just begging to go out of business for real.

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