The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz)’s responsibilities include ensuring that we, the people, are not taken advantage of by operators.
By operators, I mean telecom companies in Zimbabwe, such as those providing mobile, internet, and postal services.
Potraz is always open to hearing about poor service from telecom companies. You can reach out if you feel your service provider is giving you a raw deal.
Potraz monitors the performance of its licensees and should regularly share performance statistics with operators to alert them to their shortcomings.
I know some complain that they get no service in their neighborhoods, often having to watch their bundles expire while their phones show zero signal bars. Potraz is refocusing its efforts to ensure that doesn’t happen.
Potraz has the power to fine operators for bad service, and they have done this before. For example, you may recall a few years ago when Econet was fined $73,604.28, NetOne $10,892.89, and Telecel $8,856.07 for failing quality of service standards.
New rules for telecoms companies
The government has introduced new rules to ensure that telecom companies in Zimbabwe offer better service to customers. These changes are part of Statutory Instrument 154 of 2024, which updates the Postal and Telecommunications (Quality of Service) Regulations.
The main focus of the new rules is to improve the quality of services we rely on, like preventing dropped calls, ensuring fast internet, and timely message delivery.
To achieve this, the government has set clear standards that telecom companies must meet, known as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
What telecoms companies must deliver
The government has set specific targets that telecom companies in Zimbabwe must meet to ensure good service:
- Data Service Access Success Rate (DSASR): This is basically how often you can successfully connect to the internet on your phone. The target is that it should work at least 95% of the time.
- Data Service Drop Rate (DSDR): This refers to how often your internet connection drops unexpectedly once you’re already connected. The goal is to keep this below 2%.
- Cell Availability/Uptime (CA): This is about how consistently the cell tower in your area is working and providing service. It should be available at least 67% of the time, which translates to roughly 16 hours a day.
- Minimum Downlink and Uplink Speeds: This is about how fast you can download and upload data. For 4G, the minimum download speed should be 5Mbps, and the minimum upload speed should be 1Mbps.
- Data Reliability and Integrity: This ensures that the data you send and receive is accurate and complete. The target is that at least 70% of the data should be reliable and intact.
If companies fail to meet these standards, they face penalties.
Penalties
Here’s a breakdown of some of the new rules and the fines companies could face if they don’t meet the standards:
- Dropped Calls: If a mobile company has a high rate of dropped calls or fails to meet targets for call setup success rates, they could be fined up to $200 for each cell tower that doesn’t meet the standard.
- Internet Speeds: For mobile internet (like 4G), the government expects download speeds to be at least 5 Mbps and upload speeds at least 1 Mbps. If a company fails to provide these speeds, they could face a fine of up to $5,000 for each area that doesn’t meet the target.
- Network Outages: If a company’s network goes down for more than 3 hours, they will be fined $5,000. Every additional hour of downtime will result in another $5,000 fine.
- SMS Delivery: If text messages take too long to deliver or don’t reach their destination, the company could be fined up to $200 for each area where the service fails.
These fines may seem small, considering that most of these telecom companies have revenues in the millions of dollars. However, the costs add up.
For example, I’m sure you’ve experienced network outages lasting for days. With the new rules, just a 24-hour outage would cost an operator $110,000. That’s $5000 for the first three hours and 21*$5000 for the rest. That is not chump change, my friend.
How will this play out?
There’s no question that these rules are good for users if enforced. However, I wonder if they can be enforced without actually jeopardizing the service. Hear me out.
If we focus on mobile network operators, none of them are currently posting profits.
- Econet, the largest of the three, posted a loss of roughly US$73 million for the year ending in February 2024.
- NetOne has lost the government at least US$200 million over the last two years.
- Telecel somehow still exists, with just 0.35% of the data traffic market share and 0.13% of voice traffic.
Can these companies handle a $110,000 fine for a day’s outage? We shall see.
Keeping all cell towers operational could pose problems too. There is a chronic electricity shortage expected to last well into May 2025.
Mobile operators rely on diesel and other alternatives to keep cell towers running. Unfortunately, it’s too expensive to power all cell towers this way, so some neighbourhoods suffer poor service during power cuts.
Under the new rules, mobile operators would face fines every time there’s a power cut, as service would degrade in areas not powered by diesel. How will mobile operators deal with this?
I’m sure Potraz has discussed these challenges with the operators. Perhaps there are concessions in place. If so, the new rules may look good on paper but may not be fully enforced.
It will be interesting to see how things unfold.
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