Netone has just announced yet another data price review. By now we all know that review will never be about reducing the price to match the service that is being given. So yes, the price is up again!
While that isn’t too much of a surprise, a question that keeps coming up over and over again when these hikes take place is, “why is POTRAZ allowing such ridiculousness to happen?”
Before we go into that, below are the results of NetOne’s recent price review.
This is what it will cost you to surf the internet for a month on the NetOne network (without including social media bundles):
POTRAZ
For those who don’t know, POTRAZ is an acronym for Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe. This is the board that regulates data prices in Zimbabwe. They are responsible for making sure that the data tariffs set by these mobile network operators are reasonable and justified.
So the question still stands…where is POTRAZ amidst all these data tariffs hikes?
Zimbabwe has reported the highest data tariff prices in our region despite the existence of boards such as POTRAZ. As a result, some Zimbabweans on various social platforms have finally reached a conclusion on this matter and it might just make sense. They have suggested that these unbearable price hikes could possibly be a way of reducing people’s access to the internet because a lot of political awareness and change start as just conversations on the internet.
Remember that November when a revolution started and was organised from the internet? A whole regime was changed and that is the power of the internet.
So it would make sense a lot of sense if this was a way to stop that from happening. With regards to this situation, a social media user (@doctorphill1) commented:
“social media has been and is our weapon as Citizens to spread information pertaining voting for competent leadership.”
These were the same sentiments shared by citizens when the 2022 national budget revealed controversial tax amounts on mobile phone purchases.
Do you agree with this view?