ECONET Zimbabwe Slashes Call Costs by 50%

Harare — Econet Wireless, the country's largest telecommunications company, has slashed the cost of outgoing international calls by as much as 50 percent.

Chief executive, Mr Douglas Mboweni said Zimbabweans could now call destinations such as the UK and South Africa for as little as US24c per minute (US0.004c per second). The latest development will see calls to South Africa becoming cheaper than what is charged by South African operators for calls to Zimbabwe.

Mr Mboweni said the move by Econet to cut its international tariffs had been made possible by a drive by the company to improve efficiencies. He said that Econet was also able to make such huge cuts because the contribution of international calls to the company's overall income had fallen considerably over the years.
"During our initial growth phase, international calls contributed over 25 percent to turnover. Today, that contribution has fallen. International tariffs have been falling globally for a number of years, and that trend is likely to continue," said Mr Mboweni.

He added that the tariff reviews had been ordered by the company's board, which wants customers to enjoy the best possible service. "Last year our board told us to review tariffs and introduce per second billing once we had completed most of the expansion. "Our tariffs are now the cheapest not just in Zimbabwe, but they are now very competitive within the region," he said.

* All Africa