Two well established mobile phone service providers in Zimbabwe, Telecel Zimbabwe and NetOne, are said to have confirmed that they will reduce voice tariffs by almost 30% as of 01 January 2015.
New Zimbabwe has reported that the two service providers are ready to comply with a directive issued by Potraz (Postal and Tele-communications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe) in October last year.
The current rate of 23 cents per minute is to be reduced to 15 cents, according to the directive.
The publication has detailed in its report how, in terms of tariff management, authorities opted to adopt a long run incremental cost model rather than the ITU's (International Telecommunications Union) Cositu pricing framework model.
New Zimbabwe quotes a circular by the Authority in which it is stated, "The Cositu model that was used from 2004 to 2009 was designed for switched circuits and has since been rendered obsolete due to technological and market developments in terms of newer services that are packet-based across the board."
Tariffs are expected to be further reduced to 12c per minute this year, claims the report.
Although mobile voice tariffs will be reduced, the Regulator has outlined its decision not to enforce a reduction in data tariffs and said these should be determined by market forces.
"After due consideration of the concerns raised by the consumers on tariffs being charged by operators, and representations made by operators on the same issue, the Regulator adopted a new costing model which is based on the long-run incremental cost methodology (LRIC)," Potraz said in a circular dated October 16 2014.
* More recent updates from mobile operators have inidcated that Econet Wireless and Telecel Zimbabwe have already confirmed the slash in voice tariffs.
“Telecel will have reduced tariffs starting 01/01/15,” Telecel Zimbabwe said in a Twitter posting.
Voice calls within the Telecel Zimbabwe network will cost 15 cents per minute while voice calls to Econet and NetOne will cost 16 cents per minute, it said in a new tariff schedule.
Econet Wireless said in a texted message to its subscribers that “tariffs have been reduced to 15 cents per minute for Econet to Econet calls and 16 cents per minute to local networks” with effect from the beginning of this year.
Econet had initially taken the directive to reduce tariffs to court.
NetOne is reliably understood to also have complied with the Potraz directive. However, no official confirmation could be obtained from officials at the state controlled telco.
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