Brace For Whack Network Is My Reaction To The POTRAZ 2018 Report

The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe has just released the 2018 Q4 and overall yearly report. There are just two things I want to share right now which are probably gonna mean we are stuck with terrible connectivity for a while and probably things will get worse.

1. Infrastructure

There was a massive decline in capital expenditure in the telecoms sector. This means the operators were not prioritising infrastructure installation and upgrades in 2018 as much as in 2017.

TelOne invested 61% less money for capital expenditure in 2018 than in 2017. That difference is too huge. Mobile operators are not too different, they invested 41% less towards capital expenses than they did in 2017.

This is terrible. The telecommunications sector is a capital intensive sector and operators need to keep pouring dollars into their network just to maintain already achieved performance and much more to keep expanding their reach and to migrate to better technologies.

Some areas still have just 2G connectivity for example and they also need to get to 3G at least. We are not even talking about complete 4G coverage across the country as is the case in Rwanda, a country with much less GDP and GDP per capita than Zimbabwe.

It’s not because telcos are greedy

The reduced capex investment is not because telcos don’t care and they want to just milk us. Most of the expenditure on infrastructure and even to keep using their billing systems requires foreign currency. Foreign currency is not the most available thing in Zimbabwe right now if you didn’t know.

2. Tariffs

The POTRAZ Director General said his authority has not approved any tariff increases for locally accessed services. He said approvals to raise tariffs for roaming was given by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

To be honest, roaming fees are not going to help the situation much.

Before the introduction of the RTGS dollar, the telcos were supposed to be getting forex allocated to them by the RBZ but that was not happening. Now that the currency has been floated one would expect the telcos to be allowed to increase their tariffs so they can competitively participate at the forex market but no, politicking is taking priority as it always does in Zimbabwe.

Conclusion: the network problems we are facing will remain at best but the worst case is more likely: the problems will get worse.

POTRAZRTGS DollarsReserve Bank of Zimbabwe

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

Zimbabwe RTGS Dollars are a Zimbabwean currency introduced on 20 February 2019 by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. At introduction, the currency consisted of existing RTGS balances in bank accounts, Bond Notes cash and Bond Coins. The introduction of the RTGS Dollars was announced by… Read More About RTGS Dollars

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) is the central bank of Zimbabwe. Its offices are located at number 80 Samora Machel Avenue in Harare. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe operates under the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Act, Chapter 22: 15 of 1964. The Act provides… Read More About Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe