Last week we ran an article titled “Africom and Valley Technologies to launch mobile phone networks”. In it we said that the two Internet Access Providers will be launching networks in the coming months and that they are currently conducting tests and finalizing interconnection with other telecoms providers.
Today, Valley Technologies, a Spiritage Group subsidiary, has published a ‘Tariff Guide’ in the local print press. Publishing the tariffs is a regulatory requirement from POTRAZ, Zimbabwe’s telecoms regulator.
We’re happy that this means Valley Tech is close to launch. Indications to date are that there’s potential to seriously shake up current data and voice services in the country so inching close to launch is welcome news. There are more pleasing details in the tariff guide. It is how significantly low the voice tariffs are.
Voice calls within the Valley network are priced at a maximum of US 5 cents per minute. Calls to other local networks are at a maximum of US 10 cents per minute. International calls will cost 27 cents per minute. SMS will cost US 5 cents and US 8 cents for local and international respectively. The tariffs are exclusive of VAT.
Assuming there are no other hidden costs, (like fixed monthly subscriptions for example) local calls to other networks will be over 50% cheaper than they are on existing mobile networks. Calls within the Valley network will be 75% cheaper than calls within other networks presently.
Currently, all mobile networks charge US 23 cents for calls within the network and, except for Telecel, US 25 cents for calls to other networks. Telecel charges US 23 cents for all calls to mobile phones.
There are other issues to consider ofcourse; choosing a network is not all about the lowest price tag. Issues like network coverage, service reliability, quality of support, total cost of setup and other issues all need due consideration before crossing over. But then again, besides network coverage, which one of the existing operators is performing well on any of the other factors. Valley Technologies would need to provide a significantly poor service to go lower than current standards.
This will surely have a huge impact on the current telecoms landscape. Mobile subscribers are bound to consider migrating. I for one will definitely be crossing over as soon as they launch. Depending on my experience when I do, that might be a permanent move until another great deal comes along.
We’d love to know your opinion on this. If this the start of mobile voice price wars in Zimbabwe?
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34 comments
thats how it should go.its all good for us customers at the end of the day.
thats how it should go.its all good for us customers at the end of the day.
isnt it too low for sustainability.saka wen is the launch???????????? vakomana chiuyai
iyi ndoyidawo iyi!!! inoita manje. Ko data and internet is it supported by the network? and the voice its likely to be voip i presume???
Data is supported yes. Full data plans actually for individuals and business. I’m afraid data didn’t look as cheap as voice though. check reply to @Chisinam’s comment below for tariffs.
Grt but aren’t the tarriffs supposed to decline with bundle size????, they are simply flat out. Good development though
Whats the bandwidth price in megabytes?
it’s a whole price schedule. Couldn’t put all the prices here. Unfortunately Valley’s site is not up yet.
Here’s some of it:
Monthly charge for prepaid bundles for individuals 256Kbps
1GB shaped bundle: $83
2GB shaped bundle: $167
3GB shaped bundle: $243
4GB shaped bundle: $334
5GB shaped bundle: $417
Yeah interesting prices, however when you start shapping my bandwidth i get upset because you are prioritizing http traffic over other protocols which means for instance, i cant play my online games, run my sip protocols the way i would like etc.
Not to start a flame war here but the one thing everyone is neglecting is the network in question is neither gsm or cdma, it is actually a hybrid network developed and supported by one chinese firm. This means that handset availability is based on that supplier. also has anyone considered what happens if the supplier decides sc-cdma is no longer what they want to do, who will support the network.
Until someone else offers me the services i have come to enjoy like calling my significant other in bulawayo using a video call on my 3g handset i d rather pay the premium.
Noone knows exectly what kind of technology they are bringing. but its most likey that its going to be UMTS using TD-SCDMA air interface developed in China as an alternative to W-CDMA.
Nokia, Samsung,ZTE,Hauwei etc manufacture handsets for this market.So we are looking at a complete 3G network here. This is a multi vendor thing its not just one chinese firm.
It’s not an assumption, most telecoms people know that you are using TD-SCDMA. Are you sure Nokia still manufactures these phones? You might need to check the date on that blog you read.
Tell me my brother, would you buy a phone that would operate on one network simply because it’s TD-SCDMA? What if you want to switch to access an Econet service? Buy a new phone..
TD-SCDMA is just not so cool:-)
Nokia is still manufacturing the phones.
http://press.nokia.com/2010/04/23/nokia-extends-its-offering-in-the-td-scdma-market/
These handsets are backward compatible with GSM
* 2G Network: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
* 3G Network: TD-SCDMA
So yu can switch btwn GSM and TD-SCDMA networks nicely.
Draw back is that they dont work with 3G -UMTS-W-CDMA.
wow wow wow, great stufff…………pliz launch soonest pliz
irisharp yakapenga -equally interested cyprian
yep the data doesn’t look attractive at all, looks more like the Econet charges. But m sure this will make Econet reduce their charges a bit…
Where are you guys seeing the price of data, I re-read the article twice and see nothing.
“Without going into details: If you’re running a business that does online email (e.g. Google Apps, Gmail, Hotmail), make use of Web 2.0 applications (Salesforce.com, Highrise, Youtube, Freshbooks) or do VoIP (Skype, NetMeeting, WebEx) you should NOT use shaped bandwidth.”
Thats from another website, just google shapped vs unshapped bandwidth. Econet is unshapped. 🙂
I agree, overprovisioned networks are the cheapest for high bandwidth applications, provided the Service Provider plays by the rules and doesnt overload the network!
confirm valley will offer voip not the conventional mobile voice…
it will most likely be mobile voice but voip will also run over the network… its whta is called a converged network…
In India calling from mobile to mobile is as low as 1 Rupee/min (1 Indian rupee = 0.02259 U.S. dollars) in Pakistan 1.25 Rupees/min (1 Pakistan rupee = 0.011871 U.S. dollars) and closer home in Egypt 0.19pounds/min (1 Egyptian pound = 0.167588 U.S. dollars). Though i understand that these countries have much higher population than Zim i still feel 23cents per min is way too high! 5cents per min should be very profitable.
it is a numbers game… Econet should be the one reducing prices with their self-proclaimed 5million subscribers not valley…
In Kenya, just up the road, (and in most of East Africa) calls cost US 0.04 (4c) per minute; SMS’s cost 1c. Zim prices are a rip off.
Which technolgy are they deploying ? UMTS, CDMA2000 or mobile WiMAX? Tifano tenga ma handsets
TD-SCDMA, well what’s that?? A Chinese version of 3G!!
Buy a handset from Xinwei (pron Chin-way), ummm….. somewhere in Shanghai.
Good luck and don’t get lost in the metropolis!
Ohhh Thanx Hullabaloo
So they are going with UMTS. These guys are really serious.
This is the same 3G starndard used by other operators except for the radio interface. TD-SCDMA vs W-CDMA.
Hope they bring handsets from XINWEI.
these guys look like there going to use Econet’s GSM/3G/EDGE Core Network, thats obviously how they spread so fast!
for mobile voice it will most likely have to be CDMA 1XEVDO, Valley already has a Mobile WiMAX network which they should bring into the mix for offering VoIP and Video Services…
Or as an afterthought they are most likely going UMTS (3GSM) riding on the Econet GSM/EDGE network…
If Hullabaloo is right about TD-SCDMA then these guys are deploying UMTS_TD-SCDMA used in China instead of the UMTS_W-CDMA used by Econet.
These two share the same Core Network achitecture so what yu are saying is very POSSIBLE that they might use Econet`s Core Network.
We need inside info.
Whilst the norm for us consumers will be to warmly welcome this service, but a close look into the pricing structure shows that their charges are quite unreasonable especially for data. I am seeing a situation whereby people use this service for the cheaper products only and keep their existing networks. Personally I might get into that network maybe to send cheap sms, as for calling outside I would rather keep my online mig account as I call around the world for less than valley tech are demanding.
pa voice ka1, but ku data varikurova pasi petsoka however i will move to valley tech once they launch for i know they will b forced to reduce their data pricing due to competition.
price for data is way too high compared to africom, 18us/1gig per month, powertel 50us/month unlimited…will see about voice, or r they not launching the same voice product as Telco….e last tym i heard abt Telco Voice they were negototiating with Telone on interconnectedness. Personally i love DATA and I will only move if the data tariffs where any better than the current ones
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