We knew this was coming, Econet raised their tariffs on Wednesday and NetOne will be doing the same. The regulator, POTRAZ, approved of these price hikes and I’ll stand by it, this was long overdue.
NetOne’s new, higher prices, will be be in effect on Friday the 15th of July. Here’s what you will be paying from that day onwards.
PUBLIC NOTICE
Dear Valued Customer,
Please be advised that as per regulatory approval, our tariffs effective 15 July 2022 shall be as follows:
Voice – ZWL$0.2686 per second
Data – ZWL$2.5522 per MB
SMS – ZWL$3.3137 per SMS
Visit www.netone.co.zw for more informationNetOne
That’s ridiculously cheap
Those prices look familiar because they are exactly what Econet now charges. This is what POTRAZ decided should be the going rate.
I’ll repeat what I said when Econet raised their prices, these new prices are not fair. Not because they are too high, no, they are too low. They are not fair on the mobile network operators.
I find it hard to complain about shoddy service when I’m paying this little for the service. I still complain, as is my right, but it’s harder when I feel like I’m swindling NetOne. Could this explain the botched system upgrade a little while ago? It doesn’t, but it helps paint the picture.
We can’t expect world class service from NetOne when we pay them literal peanuts. This is not to say I have anything above peanuts to give them, I am just as cash strapped as everyone else. Indeed if the prices were higher than what’s above, I would store my SIM card under my mattress.
That doesn’t change the fact that getting 43 minutes for a dollar is insane. That’s what ZW$0.2686 per second works out to, ZW$700 (approx US$1) being enough to get 43 minutes. You have to admit that is cheap, if you’re being honest. It is not NetOne or Econet’s fault that we are a nation of poor people.
Deep down you know I’m right
This is not me defending these companies, no, this is me calling a spade a spade. We were in the forefront in bashing NetOne that time they tried to charge US$800 for 80GB. This time around they have done nothing wrong but are hard done themselves.
The analogy remains valid, if someone sells a 2022 Hilux for $10,000 that is ridiculously cheap even if I can’t afford it. It’s cheap but unaffordable. I can’t say it is expensive because most of us can’t afford it. We just have to be honest in weighing what we’re getting for the amount. $10,000 is too little for a Hilux truck.
Same goes for voice airtime. US$1 is too little for 43 minutes of talk time. It gives me no pleasure to say it because as a customer I didn’t even want the prices to go up.
As a realist though, I’m worried about these low prices and what they could mean in the future. As a customer I feel like it’s our turn to get the better deal. So, yeah, I’m torn.
However when it comes to the new data prices, I’m not torn at all, they are too high. But again, we don’t really use out of bundle browsing and so are not too worried about it.
We shall see what happens with the OneFusion bundles. Those are the ones we use and care about.-techzim