The government has threatened to clamp down on mobile telephone service providers, accusing them of charging exorbitant rates despite government’s gesture of removing duty on all ICT components.
Information and Communication Technology minister Nelson Chamisa yesterday said Econet, Telecel and NetOne were unjustifiably milking ordinary Zimbabweans who were slowly finding it too expensive to communicate.
“We are not comfortable as government. The pricing is not fair. We want to review the prices to satisfy the consumers,” he said.
“They should reciprocate the efforts of government. There is no duty for ICT operators, but they have let us down. It’s no longer time ICTs were tools for the rich. They have become tools for survival.
“We want pricing models to be uniform so that services are available to the poor and downtrodden,” he said.
Sadc ministers of ICTs last week met in Botswana and agreed on a number of issues to use ICTs for the continent’s development.
Chamisa said one such agreement was on national roaming. He said a resolution was made to have ICT consumer guidelines to protect the consumers in terms of pricing.
He said his ministry was aiming to compliment President Robert Mugabe’s computerisation programme by providing a computer to every classroom at schools with electricity.
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“We are to complement the President’s programme, but this time we will be giving computers to schools with electricity so that pupils are connected to the Internet.”
