People could not believe their eyes when they woke up to absurd price hikes on SMS, data and voice bundles.

This afternoon Netone reverted back to the old prices they announced on the 2nd of February 2022. They also posted a notice on their social media pages thanking people for their undying support and overwhelming feedback.

“We are in the process of looking into all the concerns you have raised and we will keep you posted on further developments,” Netone said

It is unclear how long the prices will remain this way. It is a possibility that they will adjust them to the black market USD rate or slightly higher. It’s not certain what is next because the move they pulled this morning certainly proved that Netone can be very temperamental and unpredictable.

The post Netone Buckles Under Pressure Reverts To Old Prices appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

This move comes as a shock to many Netone subscribers because Netone increased the tariffs on the 2nd of February, almost three weeks ago.

The exchange rate for the USD and local currency keeps increasing at an astonishing rate on the black market. The rate currently sits at US$1 for ZWL$240.

It seems as though every time the rate increases, service providers amend their prices to match the black market rate even though there is an official bank rate. Below are some of the new prices compared to the old prices.

The price hikes by Netone are out of this world. Their hourly bundle was $250 ZWL for 1GB valid for 1 hour. Now it is $1650 ZWL!

Many Netone users have shared their opinions of the price increase on social media. Most people probably expected a slight increase to align the new prices with the black market USD rate as that is what most service providers do. No one expected the price increase to be two or three times more than the previous prices.

This will definitely have an effect on a lot of people and Netone’s competitors. With other service providers like Telone also significantly raising their tariffs, we are bound to see a lot of hopping around as people shift from one service provider to the other.

The post Netone Increases Data, Voice and SMS Bundle Tariffs…AGAIN! appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) is hosting a virtual hackathon. Those with ideas utilising IT to mitigate Covid-19 disruptions and promote awareness were asked to pitch them in. All applications were sent in by the 15th of September 2021.

The virtual presentation itself is set to take place on the 27th of September 2021. 10 ideas will be selected and presented at this event on the POTRAZ platforms.

POTRAZ has previously come under fire for allegedly not regulating data prices in Zimbabwe, hence the uncontrolled surge of data prices by some service providers. We hope data won’t be the reason why some will end up missing out on this event.

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The data rollover facility allowed TelOne customers to carry over their unused data to the next, prior to this introduction of this facility, unused data would expire after 30 days.

TelOne has been facing viability challenges, the company has resorted to selling handsets, and even their video on demand (VOD) platform DEOD recently reduced subscriptions prices when everyone else is hiking tariffs, a sign that things are not looking good at the parastatal.

The reason cited for the suspension is that the facility is that the rollover facility was causing instability on their platform, which was impacting other services.

In our view the decision has more to do with low revenues, when the facility was introduced it obviously meant that customers would stay longer without buying new bundles, by reverting to the old system they are able to make money even in instances where services were not rendered.

It looks like regulators in Zimbabwe are giving telecoms companies’ free reign without checks and balances, in the end it is the consumer that suffers.

The post Heart Breaking: TelOne suspends Data Rollover facility citing system challenges appeared first on Provoker Magazine.