Close Sidebar
The Financial Gazette
The Financial Gazette
The Financial Gazette

Input your search keywords and press Enter.

Home Tech #Zimshutdown: Government Alleged To Have Ordered POTRAZ To Shut Down The Internet, Doesn’t Seem True
Tech
January 15, 2019

#Zimshutdown: Government Alleged To Have Ordered POTRAZ To Shut Down The Internet, Doesn’t Seem True

Print
EMail

According to the Newsday live blog of today’s industrial action and demonstration, the government of Zimbabwe is so afraid of the action that they have ordered the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) to shut down (pun intended) the internet.

This was posted by Newsday at 11:30 am but so far we haven’t experienced any problems with network and internet connectivity.

Yesterday we got an email from one of our readers in Mutare complaining that they could not access WhatsApp and other social media platforms on their TelOne internet connection. However, that same reader admitted that their friend was able to access the same platforms on a different TelOne connection. We then concluded that this was just an isolated problem they were having and largely we still think so.

The media rights organisation MISA Zimbabwe tweeted that TelOne was alleged to have tempered with internet access and they also mentioned NotOne in that same tweet. We have checked with TelOne and their official position is that they have not done any such thing. Random checks on people with TelOne connections don’t show any interruption from the service provider.

We are yet to get a comment from POTRAZ but so far it seems the allegations are nothing but paranoia. We hope it remains like that. Throttling the flow of information is a very slippery slope

It has to be borne in mind that there have been thunder storms around the country today and in the past few days. Bad weather can affect connectivity in several ways so some of the isolated experiences with slow internet could be coincidentally a result of such. We will keep checking of course.

Just in case the internet is shut down for real, here is how you can stay online. You have to follow the advioce before it happens though otherwise once you are cut off hapana hapana…

POTRAZTelOneMutare

The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe POTRAZ) is the regulatory authority of Zimbabwe’s telecommunications sector and was established in terms of the country’s Postal and Telecommunications Act Chapter 12:05. POTRAZ was established in February 2001 Read More About POTRAZ

TelOne is one of the several Telecoms companies operating in the Zimbabwean telecommunications and technology industry. Its main core business revolves around voice, data and internet products and services. “TelOne owns a wide range of telecommunications equipment, varying from various exchanges located in strategic areas,… Read More About TelOne

Mutare is the name of Zimbabwe’s third largest city after Harare and Bulawayo. Popularliry referred to in Zimbabwe as Kumakomoyo, this word depicts the city’s mountainous terrain giving it a unique distinction which makes it different from the rest of other cities in the country…. Read More About Mutare

The post #Zimshutdown: Government Alleged To Have Ordered POTRAZ To Shut Down The Internet, Doesn’t Seem True appeared first on Techzim.