THE Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) will this month introduce a new cost-based pricing model for telecommunications operators, a move that will bring more joy to subscribers.
Tarisai Mandizha Business Reporter
Potraz deputy director-general Alfred Marisa said the authority had already identified a reliable international consultant through a tender.
“Potraz identified a reputable international consultant through a tendering system. We have since engaged the consultant and the cost modelling project will kick off early January 2014,” Marisa said in e-mailed responses to our sister paper NewsDay.
A cost-based pricing model is a method in which a fixed sum or a percentage of the total cost is added (as income or profit) to the cost of the product to arrive at its selling price.
Marisa said Potraz had completed a number of projects in 2013 among them the procurement of a quality of service measurement system which will be due for commissioning during first quarter of 2014.
It also completed the enhancement of the automated spectrum management system, monitoring and enforcement, that is, identification and prosecution of illegal operators and cancellation of licences of defaulting operators and renewal of Econet and Telecel licences.
He said the authority completed a consumer protection framework that comprises consumer protection guidelines, Consumer Bill of Rights, complaints handling system, consumer awareness and education strategy and consumer satisfaction surveys.
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“The consumer protection guidelines will be officially launched in the first quarter of 2014. We have engaged a consultant to conduct a consumer satisfaction survey whose results will be published early 2014,” Marisa said.
Marisa said they had also engaged a consultant to calculate the cost of providing all telecommunication services in Zimbabwe.
He said the latest subscriber statistics for the telecommunication sector in Zimbabwe mobile penetration rate currently stands at 103,5% for the year ended December 2013, fixed mobile penetration rate was 2,4% and data and Internet at 39,8%.
Mobile subscriber figures now stand at 13,5 million, while data and Internet subscribers totalled 5,2 million. Fixed subscribers were at 307 000 in the period.
