BY MTHANDAZO NYONI
THE Postal and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (Potraz) says transiting costs are behind expensive telecoms tariffs in Zimbabwe compared to other countries.
Addressing delegates at the just ended Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce 2021 congress in Victoria Falls, Potraz deputy director-general Alfred Marisa said Zimbabwe accesses undersea cables through other countries.
“One of the major reasons why the internet is expensive in landlocked countries is that there are transiting costs,” Marisa said.
“We have to access the submarine cables, which are running around the oceans.
“By being landlocked it means you have to transit through other countries.
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“For Zimbabwe and Zambia, we have to transit through South Africa, Mozambique and Botswana.
“So, our operators like Liquid and TelOne have to pay a lot of money to access the submarine cable and that cost has to be passed on to the consumer.”
Ranked 136th worldwide for mobile data pricing in a study based on the cost of 1 gigabyte (1GB) of mobile data, neighbouring South Africa’s data costs an average of US$2,67 for 1GB of data, with the cheapest data costing US$0,12, while the most expensive is US$34,95, which are way below the cost of the service in Zimbabwe.
Sub-Saharan Africa has six of the 10 most expensive countries in the world for internet costs, with Equatorial Guinea the most expensive at US$49,67 for 1GB of internet, according to studies.
In Botswana, the price range of 1GB of data is US$10 – US$20. In Kenya, 1GB is US$1,05 and in Burundi, 1GB costs US$2,12.
The lowest prices per 1GB of data in the African continent are in Sudan (US$0,9), Egypt (US$1,3) and Morocco (US$2).
“Within the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) framework it’s something that has been noticed as the issue that needs to be dealt with so that we make the internet more affordable,” Marisa said.
“You will find that access to the internet in South Africa is cheaper than in Zimbabwe, one of the factors is basically that South Africa has access to submarine cables without the necessity of transiting through another territory.
“Within the Sadc context there are discussions to see how landlocked countries can be assisted to make sure that access into the submarine cable is cheaper.”
He added that Sadc states were looking at how they can address a situation where calls emanating from the economies have to be routed to European exchanges first, before being rerouted back to recipients.
“We have what is called internet exchange points where you want to leave all the players in that sphere so that traffic does not go out of the country,” Marisa said.
“We in Zimbabwe established one and we are also in the process of upgrading it to a regional internet exchange point.
“I think South Africa already has one.
“This is to try to keep the traffic within the region without having to go outside the continent so as to reduce costs and improve on quality.”
Liquid Intelligent Solutions chief executive officer Wellington Makamure said as companies moved online, there was a need to invest in systems and processes that counter cyber attacks.
Zimbabwe has seven major internet service providers — TelOne, Zimbabwe Online, Econet, Netone, Telecel, Utande, and Zarnet.