Econet Reduces Mobile Line Sim Cards To US$2

Econet Wireless ZimbabweEconet announced today the reduction of its mobile line’s price from US$5 to US$2. The US$2 includes airtime worth a dollar. This follows a similar move by its closest competitor, Telecel Zimbabwe, about 2 months ago.

Adverts by Econet in the local press today urge customers to act now as ‘offer’ is only “valid while stocks last!” We’re not sure what exactly is meant by this statement. Maybe Econet will revert to the $5 when they run out ‘stocks’. And the ‘stocks’, is this the physical sim cards itself or capacity on the network?

Mobile operators in Zimbabwe have been working to normalize the industry after years of economic turmoil. Just 2 years ago, at the height of Zimbabwe’s Hyperinflation, a mobile line cost as much as US$150 and was only available on the black market.

Lately, Zimbabwe’s telecoms regulator POTRAZ has asked mobile operators to start charging subscribers on per- second billing (as opposed to per-minute), to which operators responded they could only offer this as an option and not the default.

2 Comments

Comments are closed