New ZOL Prices VS New TelOne Prices

Zimbabwe’s two biggest fixed internet service providers have both changed their pricing and they have used the same spin: our prices have not increased, we are merely aligning to the monetary policy.

Kind of reminds one of, “The president and his family are safe, we are targeting the criminals around him.” I’ll end it there and jump right into it:

Capped packages in RTGS$

TelOne Capped Data Pricing in RTGS$

Capped Package	Data Cap	RTGS$ Price	RTGS$ Price Per GB
Home Basic	10GB	$37.50	$3.75
Home Plus	30GB	$62.50	$2.08
Home Premier	60GB	$105.00	$1.75
Infinity Pro	500GB	222.50	$0.45

ZOL Capped Data Pricing in RTGS$

Capped Package	Data Cap	RTGS$ Price	RTGS$ Price Per GB
Lite	40GB	$72.50	$1.81
Basic	50GB	$97.50	$1.95
Family	100GB	$222.50	$2.23

First, the pricing for TelOne packages makes sense in that the price per GB gets cheaper when you are buying more. The ZOL trend above is quite irrational, they punish you for spending more.

TelOne starts of at a ridiculous $3.75 per GB! Subjectively, it feels like TelOne is more expensive per GB that they give you in general. I say subjectively because the comparison is difficult because the two ISP’s hardly have any similar packages. You can’t take averages because these are disparate bands.

If…

If you have a maximum $50 to spend, ZOL will not even talk to you about fibre, TelOne will give 10GB and leave you with some little change to augment with mobile data.

However, ZOL has a package called Zoom. It’s only available to residents of Warren Park. I guess they will roll it out to other high density suburbs. For $47.50 you get 25GB on Zoom which is significantly lower per GB when compared to the TelOne entry level package.

What if you had $100? Well ZOL will give you 50GB of data and $2.50 change wotenga ma sweets. On TelOne you will get 30GB for $62.50 and because TelOne’s billing is flexible, you can also get the 10GB for $37.50 and your $100 will be exhausted. Still after doing all that, you would have got 10GB less data than what ZOL offers you with change. ZOL wins.

Conveniently, both companies have packages that cost $222.50. ZOL gives you 100GB for that amount and TelOne gives you a generous 500GB! TelOne wins.

Capped packages in USD

TelOne Capped Data Pricing in USD

Capped Package	Data Cap	USD Price	USD Price per GB
Home Basic	10GB	$15.00	$1.50
Home Plus	30GB	$25.00	$0.83
Home Premier	60GB	$42.00	$0.70
Infinity Pro	500GB	$89.00	$0.18

ZOL Capped Data Pricing in USD

Capped Package	Data Cap	Price in USD	Price Per GB in USD
Lite	40GB	$29.00	$0.73
Basic	50GB	$39.00	$0.78
Family	100GB	$89.00	$0.89

The trends in USD terms are similar.

Uncapped packages

ZOL’s uncapped packages start at $149 or $372.50 in USD and RTGS respectively. TelOne’s uncapped package is priced at USD120 or RTGS$300 which is cheaper than ZOL.

However ZOL Wibroniks has an uncapped plan that is priced cheaper than TelOne at USD72 or RTGS$179.

No obvious choice

The above shows there are too many nuances to declare any one provider more affordable. Affordability is a very relative term. What budget do you have? How much of the internet do you use? Doing what? Without answers to those questions, choosing a provider is difficult.

Other factors must also be considered for example: where do you live and are both service providers available for that area? Which type of connectivity do they provide there? For example, TelOne could be available but only offering ADSL which you can’t compare to fibre that is of course if you need high speeds for stuff like streaming.

TelOne as already mentioned has fair and flexible billing. At whatever time you buy data, it’s gonna last you 30 days. ZOL bills per calendar month. If you run out before the month is done your only option is to top up at a very exorbitant rate.