THE Postal and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) has allocated the country’s three mobile network operators free frequencies until the end of the year as part of measures to ensure affordable data to consumers in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Potraz director-general Dr Gift Machengete said the authority has granted Econet, NetOne and Telecel free spectrum to enable them to increase their capacities to offer data to consumers.

“During the Covid-19, Potraz will be assigning additional 3G (Third Generation Network) and LTE (Long Term Evolution) spectrum for free to cater for additional data demand. The authority has granted the spectrum up to December 2020 to three mobile operators to enable them to increase the capacity of their data offering,” he said.

This, however, comes at a time when mobile network operators have reviewed upwards charges for most of their services, including data, sparking an outcry from users who say the services were now beyond their reach.

Econet, the country biggest mobile phone operator, increased data prices by 225 percent.

However, Dr Machengete said the review was within what the regulator prescribed (30 cents per megabyte) as firms were all along charging less to attract customers.

Potraz, he said, continues to regulate tariffs for data or Internet using the cost-based pricing principle.

“Costs incurred to provide the service are used to determine thresholds within which operators set tariffs.

This is meant to balance the need to ensure service affordability at the same time ensuring survival of operators.

Operators then get flexibility to compete on prices as manifested in their discounted bundle offerings,” he said.

Government is said to be working on using the Zimbabwe Academic and Research Network (ZARNet)’s low-cost broadband connectivity to facilitate online learning at schools.-State media