I think you are immune to this kind of news now. Econet tariffs are going up tomorrow, the 20th of April 2023. This should not come as a surprise, you know that we are in a hyperinflationary economy and so prices will be going up every so often.
Not only that, in February telecom operators were authorised to raise prices and we were told then that they would be able to increase by a further 50% in April.
The actual statement from the regulator said operators could increase prices by up to 50%, meaning they could choose to increase by less than that or not even increase at all. I wouldn’t bet on that though. There is no precedent.
Econet sent a message out saying,
This serves to notify you of the planned changes on our Voice, Data, and SMS Tariffs and Bundles Prices effective Thursday, 20 April 2023.
So Econet could increase prices by 50% tomorrow and this is how much some of their popular bundles would cost if that happened.
- The 8GB Private Wifi bundle costs ZW$18,557 and could rise to $27,835.50.
- The 1400MB monthly data bundle costs $10,478.76 and could rise to $15,718.14
- The 65MB weekly WhatsApp bundle costs $523.85 and could rise to $785.93.
- An on-net voice minute costs $94.41 and could rise to $141.62.
We talked about how these current prices are high as it is. If we use a black market rate of 1:1200 to convert to USD, we find that the monthly bundle above costs US$8.73 today. That would rise to US$13.10 tomorrow. That would be an insane $9.36 per GB, up from an already ridiculous $6.24 per GB.
Even the WhatsApp bundle above is priced way too high. If 65MB cost $524, a GB would cost ZW$8255 (or US$6.88). Apparently, these prices are not good enough for Econet and friends.
There’s not much we can do about it now. We might as well get a bundle in before the hike tomorrow.
[Update:]
The new prices are in and it appears Econet did not effect the same percentage increase on all their services. For the most part, they did not take advantage of the full 50% hike that the regulator allowed for.
For example,
- the 65MB WhatsApp bundle’s price rose to ZW$656, from $523.85, a 25% increase
- the 1400MB monthly data bundle’s price rose to $11,527, a 10% increase
- the 8GB Private Wifi bundle’s price stayed the same at $18,557
- the $94.41 voice tariff is the new one
To see the full tariff list, visit Econet’s website, for data bundles and for other tariffs.
Also read:
Are Econet and NetOne really saying US$7.50 or US$6.54 for 1GB is not economically sustainable?
Should we give Econet, NetOne and Telecel a pass for shoddy service? Maybe
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