Published by the government of Zimbabwe
30 December 2008
Harare — TELECOMMUNICATION operators have been granted regulatory approval to charge for all their products and services in foreign currency.
Industry players said companies in the telecommunications sector had sought the approval in order to stay afloat, as service providers had to run operations funded almost entirely in foreign currency while still earning local currency.
Econet Wireless, the country's largest mobile service provider, will today start charging all services and products, including airtime and SIM cards, in foreign currency.
Econet said 95 percent of the cost of bringing service to its customers was in foreign currency.
However, because of tariffs charged in local currency, the company, as is the case with other telecom operators, was increasingly unable to invest in the maintenance of its infrastructure or to meet other costs critical to the efficient running of the network.
Econet's core cellular business reported a loss in the year to August, the company's first ever loss since it commenced operations 11 years ago.
"We are grateful that our regulators recognised that this decision had to be taken to save companies in the telecommunications industry," said Econet Wireless chief executive Mr Douglas Mboweni, who is also head of the Telecommunications Operators of Zimbabwe.
Buddie subscribers will be charged US$0,29 per minute for a call within the Econet network, and US$0,32 for calls to other networks.
Mr Mboweni said the tariffs were exclusive of value added tax, which, at 22,5 percent, was "well above the regional average" of 14 percent.
Zimbabwean operators also face unique costs, such as providing back-up diesel power to base stations and other key installations because of frequent power cuts.
An immediate result of the authorisation to bill in foreign currency has been to enable Econet to open negotiations with billing systems suppliers, which would lead to the restoration of post-paid packages, said Mr Mboweni.
Contract subscribers were migrated to pre-paid in November pending the availability of new funding to invest in a new billing system.
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Why not use monopoly money, then all the money can be worthless in Zim. Seems the economy is in its last throws, if the general populous has to trade in foreign currency locally!
stop using the racist white currency use an african currency!!!