THE move by Zimbabwe’s mobile network service providers, including South Africa-based Econet International to charge tariffs in foreign currency, has come under fire.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe recently granted the mobile networks permission to charge in foreign currency after expressing viability problems due to the hyper-inflationary environment.
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) is the latest organization to voice its concern over the charges in foreign currency. MISA (Zimbabwe) chairman, Loughty Dube, said the move would add more woes to the impoverished Zimbabweans.
Dube said the inability of subscribers to buy airtime, now being sold in foreign currency – with the cheapest going for US$5 – would add to “the appalling state of fixed and mobile telephone networks in Zimbabwe which has seen subscribers failing to communicate as and when they desire, despite the high tariff charges.”
Zimbabwe’s economy has recently been dollarized.
MISA urged the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) to bear in mind that communication is a human right and the key to freedom of expression and access to information.
The telecommunications industry in the Southern African country has not been spared Zimbabwe’s economic recession with the players in the industry – NetOne, Econet Wireless and Telecel – complaining of viability problems–ITNewsAfrica.
