The decision by the government of Zimbabwe to allow mobile phone operators to review tariffs upward has been hailed. The country's three mobile telephone companies hailed the decision as a relief since it would improve their offerings and services.

"We are pleased by the decision. We have been charging our clients less than our costs and it had become difficult for us to continue offering services", said one Director who wanted to remain anonymous.

The Minister of transport and communication, Mr. Chris Mushowe also expressed his excitement about the new development saying it had averted a possible collapse of Zimbabwe's mobile telephone network system.

"People living outside Zimbabwe were no longer making calls to Zimbabwe," said Mr. Mushohwe. "They would simply send an SMS asking people here to call, so at the end of the day, local operators were not getting foreign currency for terminating incoming international calls while at the same time paying termination rates for outgoing calls. In other words, local operators were subsidizing people living in the Diaspora. "This is bad economics. The equation was not balanced and it was going to be a tragedy. The review really helped matters; otherwise the networks would have collapsed."

The Minister also singled out low tariffs as the reason behind network congestion. He also encouraged the mobile telephone companies to expand their systems in line with demand.
The government in June ordered all businesses in Zimbabwe to review their prices to the June index.

This saw tariffs being reduced drastically and creating unbearable congestion. The price cuts meant that everyone could now afford to make an international call using a mobile phone.

Prior to the June price cuts, tariffs had been increased with subscribers of Net One, Econet Wireless and Telecel paying an average of $5 000 per minute.

Following reversion to June 18 tariffs, a call was costing an average of $450 per minute.

Highway Africa News Agency