Well, this should come as no surprise. As we know Econet has been agitating for a tariff “review” for quite some time now. Their last review was in October 2019. So if you didn’t buy a data bundle last night you are in for a rude awakening. The new tariffs push the cost of data up to ZWL$200 per gigabyte. That’s roughly US$11.50 according to the interbank rate (US$8.15 at the parallel rate) in a country where a great majority earn below US$100 per month.
The company which recently made moves towards repositioning their brand as a digital lifestyle company are certainly taking it seriously. The challenges faced by Zimbabweans are well known to us and they are the same challenges faced by Zimbabwean companies and their employees. The state of the nation, particularly in terms of infrastructure should serve as a lesson to all of us as to just what happens when maintenance is not at the forefront of an organisations priorities.
This is what you can expect to part with for access to the world;
While the effects of this will certainly leave many customers angered, data bundles have not been the preferred method of access for many. Selective social media bundles for WhatsApp, Twitter and others have been the preferred method and with developments like this, it’s hard to see that changing anytime soon. Sure they will raise those too soon enough. Econet like many other companies such as Delta have experienced increased revenues but these do not outpace rampant inflation which is estimated at 521% year on year for December 2019 as the government itself stopped publishing year on year figures.
If you’re in a business which relies heavily on data and use Econet you might want to review your prices to stay viable. Of course, we can rest assured the price increase wave will catch on to other carriers very soon.
