Telecel Zimbabwe is reluctant to allow customers to activate roaming on their own because of the ongoing liquidity crunch. .

Subscribers are requested to engage the company to activate roaming on their lines before leaving the country, the company confirmed this week.

Telecel brand manager, Farai Katiza, said, "Everyone is fully aware of the current economic challenges being faced by the country, as a company we also have no choice but (to) respond by saving the forex and not bleeding the company."

Zimbabwe's worsening economy is forcing telcos to consider cost-cutting measures and increase income from average revenue per user.

Katiza said while roaming is generally expensive globally, in Zimbabwe the visitor network has to be paid in forex and not in RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) or US-dollar surrogate currency bond notes.

Head of corporate communications at the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Mwangi Gakunga recently said officials from 15 of the 19 member states resolved to remove roaming charges levied on mobile phone calls.

"The ministers resolved to abolish roaming charges, a move that seeks to bring down the high cost of communication that has remained high in Africa compared to other regions of the world," said Gakunga.

Telecel Zimbabwe subscribers pay US$0.15 for 10kb of data when roaming on Vodacom's network, US$0.05 on MTN, and US$0.03 on Cell C.