Zimbabwe: MISA urges mobile firms to reconsider charging in forex

8 January, 2009 in Zimbabwe

source: SW Radio Africa
By Lance Guma
07 January 2008

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has expressed concern that the charging for mobile phone services in foreign currency by all the major networks is seriously impeding the right of Zimbabweans to communicate. Many people interviewed by Newsreel say they can no longer buy airtime for their phones because the little forex they manage to get has to be used to buy scarce basic commodities.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe recently granted the mobile networks permission to charge in foreign currency. This was after the networks complained that they lost money to hyper-inflation by producing monthly phone bills. MISA noted the inability of subscribers to buy airtime for their phones and said this added to ‘the appalling state of fixed and mobile telephone networks in Zimbabwe which has seen subscribers failing to communicate as and when they desire, despite the high tariff charges.’

Although Zimbabwe’s economy has virtually been ‘dollarised’ the majority of workers still earn the [continue reading]