Zimbabwe’s government has announced it intends to increase Internet penetration to above 75% by 2025. Women’s affairs, community, small, and medium development minister Sithembiso Nyoni said the aim was to raise Internet access in the next two years. The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe’s (Potraz) second-quarter report of 2022 showed that Internet penetration...
Japan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have extended technical assistance to Zimbabwe to implement the Enhanced General Data Dissemination System (e-GDDS), a platform to publish essential macroeconomic and financial data. The e-GDDS is the first tier of the IMF Data Standards Initiatives that promote transparency as a global public good and encourage countries to voluntarily publish...
Telcos in Zimbabwe have petitioned the government to allow them to peg their tariffs in US dollars rather than the local Zimbabwe dollar to protect them from hyperinflation. Although telecoms regulator POTRAZ recently approved a 50% increase in prices, operators say that the rapid depreciation of local currency during the ongoing economic crisis is not enabling them...
Econet Wireless Zimbabwe has awarded a contract to Ericsson for the modernisation of its radio access network (RAN) and core network infrastructure across Zimbabwe’s capital city, Harare. Ericsson says the network upgrade will pave the way for Econet to deliver 5G connectivity in more locations, unlocking advanced consumer and enterprise use cases. As part of...
The Zimbabwe Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Potraz) has given telecommunications companies the go-ahead to implement a 50% tariff increase, ahead of a further 50% price hike in April. The regulator justified the increases saying telecommunications have been operating below profitable thresholds, despite the apparent dollarisation of mobile money transactions. Gift Machengete, Director-General of Potraz,...
Since 2019, Zimbabwean telecom operators have regularly revised their prices upwards. However, these adjustments have always proved ineffective, particularly due to the economic crisis in the country. The Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (POTRAZ) has approved a further increase in tariffs for services provided by telecom operators. The latter will immediately implement an initial increase of 50%...
Leading Zimbabwean broadband ISP, Dandemutande has invested US$5-million into an alliance with pan-African telecommunications infrastructure company Bandwidth and Cloud Services Group (BCS) to roll out a fibre network expansion project. The project has been organised to improve the redundancy of the ISPs network, as well as speed, resilience and uptime. Dandemutande will leverage BCS’ current...
Zimbabwe’s government has unveiled plans to deploy 300 new base stations across the country to support mobile services in rural areas. A report from Ecofin says the equipment for the rollout has already been acquired. The network expansion will be funded by the Universal Services Fund (USF) and carried out by state-owned mobile operator NetOne....
Zimbabwean telecoms companies are constrained from meeting surging demand for voice and data services owing to challenges accessing foreign currency. This is further exacerbated by power issues. Although usage of foreign currency has been increasing in Zimbabwe, where up to 77% of purchases of basic foodstuffs are made in US dollars, telecoms operators are struggling...
Consumer rights organisations in Zambia and Zimbabwe are mounting pressure on authorities to minimise power outages, which they say are disrupting telecommunications services in some areas. Zimbabwe and Zambia are experiencing electricity shortages, resulting in imposed power blackouts. Low water levels, which is used for electricity generation, and planned maintenance have caused the electricity shortfall....
