Zim industry regulator blasts NetOne over airtime 'disappearance'

Zim industry regulator blasts NetOne over airtime 'disappearance'

Zimbabwe MNO NetOne said a fault in its billing system has resulted in Onefusion subscribers being overcharged.

The Onefusion service gives subscribers a comprehensive plan that has bundles for on-net and off net minutes, data, SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter bundles and international minutes.

Subscribers have complained that data bundles have disappeared and in some cases they have been overcharged.

In response the company stated, "As NetOne we take pride in our endeavour to serve you; but unfortunately, have failed to meet your service expectations on this issue. Upon thorough review of the situation we narrowed the cause to an unforeseen technical glitch."

It was committed towards improving, "your experience and our technical team is working flat out," said NetOne on its Facebook page, adding that "Facebook, who're also the owners of WhatsApp, have made some critical changes to their news mobile app while content (video, image or audio) may appear to be residing on the Facebook or WhatsApp, it is in actual fact saved on Google or Amazon cloud service."

Zimbabwe's telecommunications industry regulator Potraz has demanded the company's customers be compensated.

In communication to NetOne's acting chief executive Brian Mutandiro, Potraz director general Gift Machengete stated: "The Authority has noted the billing challenges you are facing with the Onefusion product. We have also noted that you have sent a communication to your subscribers advising and admitting the same challenges. Given the extent and magnitude of complaints raised to the Regulator by the subscribers, we hereby direct you to compensate the affected consumers in accordance with the prejudice they endured. This is done in the spirit of promoting the consumers' right to complain and redress."

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