The Sunday Mail
Nokuthula Dube
Government is working on a number of initiatives to reduce the cost of data.
Some of these measures include the operationalisation of the National Internet Exchange Point, the promotion of local content, and the infrastructure sharing initiative.
In an interview with The Sunday Mail Online, Minister of ICT, Postal and Courier Services, Dr Jenfan Muswere said:
“Potraz (Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe) has been encouraging infrastructure sharing, in particular among internet access providers, with a view to reduce cost of service provision.
“There is also a focus on the establishment of a National Internet Exchange Point, which will facilitate the exchange of traffic at the local level, cutting on the need and cost of transiting internet traffic via internet transit hubs overseas.
“Further work is also being carried out on operationalising the National Internet Exchange Point into a Regional Exchange Point, so that Internet traffic is also exchanged at the SADC level thereby making internet traffic in other SADC countries available to users in Zimbabwe without transiting through international transit hubs.”
The country’s telecommunications sector regulator is actively involved in efforts to operationalise the regional internet exchange points, as well as the regional interconnection framework.
In regulating tariffs, Potraz uses the cost-based principle, which observers say is the most objective criteria for determining tariffs.
And, as a way of curbing unjustified high data tariffs, Potraz has resorted to using the Telecommunications Price Index (TPI) to track cost movements in the provision of telecommunication services since January 2019.
Prior to that, Potraz was using the results of the Long Run Incremental Costing (LRIC) methodology to set thresholds for telecommunication services, including data tariffs.
