Government reacts to public outcry over data bundle charges

Dar es Salaam. The government yesterday reacted to people’s complaints about the cost of bundles being too high, while disclosing that strategies to re-evaluate important areas to ensure that data costs are reduced were underway.

In the strategy, the government believes that by reducing production costs among telecom companies, the cost of phone packages and bundles will also drop.

The development comes when mobile phone users have been complaining about the increase in the cost of airtime packages and data bundles at a time when the cost of living has also been going up, thus awakening the relevant authorities to clear the air.

Speaking at different times with The Citizen yesterday, some of the citizens, including Mr Yakoub Haji, said in the past that he was using the Sh2,000 package that had 100 minutes, 30 text messages and one GB. However, currently with the reduced package he gets 40 minutes, 10 messages and one GB.

Mr Ernest Haule said he used to subscribe to the Sh3000 weekly package and used to get 30 minutes and 1.6 GB, but now at that rate one gets 1 GB and 30 minutes. While they used to get 300 MBs for Sh500, now it is 287 MBs and 30 minutes.

But in an interview with Clouds FM yesterday, the minister in charge of Information, Communication and Information Technology, Mr Nape Nnauye, said that many people have not been paying attention to the changes in packages/bundles, especially in terms of cost and time.

He noted that currently the price of transporting data in Tanzania was between Sh1.71 to Sh9.35 per kilometre and the government had instructed the service providers not to raise the price beyond that so that every citizen can afford it, given that internet was one of the basic needs at the moment for a large percentage of Tanzanians.

The minister noted further that due to the large investment that has already been made, including the presence of the national backbone and the telecom towers, the operating cost was the only obstacle at the moment and they must look at it. “What we are doing is reviewing the areas that evaluate prices to find out what we can address so as to reduce production costs, which will lead to a reduction in the cost of transporting data,” he explained.

Mr Nnauye said every four years, the government conducts a major assessment of the state of internet access and bundles to see where to improve and bring relief to the users. “So we are on this strategy that will give us answers of what we should do next.”

Further, in the conversation, the minister said despite people complaining about bundle prices, it was still cheaper in Tanzania compared to some countries in Africa and around the world.

He said the comparison made by major organisations in the world by looking at the cost of transporting data, shows that Tanzania enjoys average charges.

is not high in cost, although he emphasized that it was not a reason to continue to ignore the grievances among users.

In that assessment, he added, the country that led the way for having the lowest cost of data transmission was Israel, where it transmitted by 0.04. Tanzania in the list is the 50th country in the world and sixth in Africa for having low transmission costs.

He said that in Africa, Tanzania was preceded by Algeria (0.48), Libya (0.61), Ghana (0.61), Morocco (0.62) then Tanzania with 0.63.

“This doesn’t justify that since we are at a lower cost, then we are doing good, no, and that is why there are complaints due to the fact that the economy of our people is not the same,” he stressed.

“This is why the government has been controlling the costs so that they do not rise too much, to match the purchasing power of its people,” he added.