A campaign has been launched in Zimbabwe calling for telecom providers to reduce how much they charge for internet services, reports Zim Tech review.
Following in the prints of South Africa’s #DataMustFall the National Consumer Rights Association of Zimbabwe (NACORA) has intensified a campaign for data prices to come down.
On average a 1-gigabyte data bundle costs more than household necessities such as bread and milk.
The hope is that it will be made more affordable across the board and to prevent purchased packages and airtime from expiring after a 30 day period, which is infuriating!
Around three in 10 people in Africa have access to the internet.
The continent lags behind average global internet penetration, which is just under 50%.
NACORA has vowed to take the fight against high cellphone and data costs to their corporate offices in a bid to force them to re-consider their high data costs.
It says that service providers are robbing poor Zimbabweans of their hard-earned money by charging unjustifiably exorbitant prices for data. Through default out-of-bundle browsing they take all your money even if you could not use the data due to poor network connectivity. You can’t transfer data to family and friends. Data bundles expire even if you have not used any of it.
To unfairly make millions of dollars out of unsuspecting poor Zimbabweans is evil and morally unacceptable. It is unfair trade and a bad business practice. Data drives economic activity and is critical to the sustenance of the security and livelihoods of poor families throughout the country. Consumer rights are human rights.
Therefore as consumers we are saying:
Data prices MUST come down
DEFAULT out-of-bundle browsing MUST be removed
Data MUST roll over (Data bundles must not expire)
Source: Mbaretimes
