Or $3,7 per GB to be more exact

Econet’s new ZWL data prices did what they usually do this morning: shocked the populace, produced a few men’s and jokes, and just left everyone sort of.. stuck because at this point no one feels they can do anything about it. And that may be true. After all the average Zimbabwean alone can’t probably make Econet behave or “chill” about it’s pricing (though we recon a certain recently installed Minister of ICT could). But with Econet literally charging prices that amount to their cheapest private Wi-Fi bundle literally being priced at $29.69 USD for 8GB of data or  $3.7 per 1GB of data, we clearly have too much of a problem to just make memes about it and pipe down.

Now to be fair, for some of Econet’s price increases, it does make sense. Most bundles that were priced  at ZWL $2000 OR less probably did make sense for the 2x pricing they got. But for a lot of the bigger data bundles, especially the private Wi-Fi or monthly options, it just doesn’t make sense. We’ve already talked for years about how Zimbabwe had the most expensive internet in the world. And to be fair if we were to compare a 2019 study and now, the numbers might look better. But they’re also still absurd. Yes Econet might say it’s a predictive practice, because the rate will go up so they need their pricing to anticipate that but think about it this way: you’re paying DOUBLE the money you paid for data last month, for the same amount of data, while likely having the same salary and the actual rate hasn’t even doubled from the time Econet last changed their tariffs. It’s literally just the being iffy about the rate, because they can be, and they obviously don’t mind making a lot more money in the meantime while the rate catches up.

And that’s the biggest issue here: the rate. At the time of writing, the upper bid for the official interbank rate is ZWL $5999.7616 for 1 USD. Black market rate is around ZWL $7500, and that’s actually the rate we used to get a figure of $29.69. Meaning if we’re using the official Bank rate upper bid, and 8GB bundle would cost $37,07 , or about $4.6 USD per GB. Go down to the mid interbank rate and it’s almost $40 at $39.07. Even if the black market rate was $10000 , Econet’s bundle would still cost $22 to buy. All of these prices are honestly insane, even if Econet may try to hide behind the fact that it has the option of USD bundles too, which are cheaper, but the fact that a client needs to go deal with the black market to acquire USD anyway is not the kind of thing any company should be insinuating it’s customers should do. It’s these sort of moves that we feel POTRAZ and our new Minster of ICT should be focusing on, as they cause a lot of changes and inconveniences for the life of the daily Zimbabwean. Whether they actually get addressed is another story entirely, but for now, you might want use your other line to get data for the next month or two.

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