Zimbabwe’s Mobile Phone Network, NetOne Reintroduced Low Priced Data Packages

Posted by: lukwago J in Tech January 22, 2017

STATE-owned mobile phone network, NetOne, says it has reintroduced low priced data packages as part of its efforts to offer affordable products. In a statement on Wednesday, NetOne said it had captured many new subscribers in the aftermath of the recent aborted attempts to increase mobile data floor prices.

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“A close analysis of NetOne’s data bundles and social media bundles shows that NetOne now offers the most affordable data offers when compared to the other players,” it said.

The mobile phone operator said following the public outcry that led to the reversal of the new data floor prices announced by the industry regulator, it had come up with attractive packages that resonate with the expectations of Zimbabweans in the face of the prevailing liquidity challenges.

The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority had directed that all mobile phone operators increase voice and data floor prices to 12 cents per minute and 2 cents per megabyte, respectively from January 9, 2017. Floor prices are the minimum prices operators charge per minute of voice call or megabyte of data.

There was a public outcry after some operators effected price increases, in some cases by as much as 500 percent. However, the steep new floor prices announced by POTRAZ were reversed on Thursday last week following the intervention of Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services Minister Supa Mandiwanzira.

NetOne said its new $1 data bundle now gives customers about 300 megabytes compared to the industry average of between 220mb and 250mb. This will be good news to the consumers as they are expected to enjoy video action on YouTube and Netflix daily.

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NetOne has also introduced weekly offers,

These are only exclusive to NetOne,” read the statement. NetOne said it has unveiled attractive social media bundles, expected to bring cheers to WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter users. The daily bundles for WhatsApp and Facebook have been pegged at 27 cents for 40mb, while the Twitter bundle has been put on 50mb for the same value.

In comparison, other operators’ daily bundle charges average 30 cents for 30mb of WhatsApp and Facebook and they do not offer Twitter bundles.

NetOne said it has also introduced a fair usage policy on its packages such as social media bundles and OneFusion package in line with the global technological trends.

According to the latest POTRAZ sector performance report for the third quarter of 2016, mobile data utilisation increased by 16,1 percent while voice calls declined by 3,6 percent.

The trend might see one of the factors influencing NetOne’s drive of making mobile data more affordable.

Source: The herald

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