An outcry over poor data service quality in Zimbabwe has prompted the government to act, with the telecom regulator now probing service quality and pricing, according to ICT Minister Supa Mandiwanzira.

The Minister said the government has acted because on an increase in the number of complaints received from subscribers related to data pricing. "The regulator has come up with regulations over quality of service by the providers. They have installed equipment which monitor the quality of service and that includes the pricing by operators."

He explained that part of the reason why data was expensive in Zimbabwe is because of the land-locked nature of the country which means it is forced to access undersea cables through other countries.

He added that "companies that are in the mobile phone business in this country buy bandwidth from related companies outside the country. The price we end up paying in Zimbabwe is inflated because they want to keep some of that money outside the country."

The government has initiated a survey related to data pricing and is also in the process of setting up an integrated gateway facility for telecommunications traffic.

However, this has raised concerns over exposure to monitoring of traffic in the industry, especially in the wake of the growing role of social media in protests that have rocked Zimbabwe in the past few months.

Experts from mobile companies such as Econet have previously explained that the disappearing airtime is being used up by mobile applications that run in the background.