AIRTEL Reduces data bundle by 52%

By John Saukira

Malawi’s leading telecommunications company Airtel, has announced reduction of internet rate bundles from K31.50 per Megabyte to K15.00 per mb.

Airtel Malawi MD Charles Kamoto says the reason behind this is to ensure that Malawians have access to their products and services at affordable rates.

“Dear Customer, we are reducing our Internet PayGO rate from K31.50 per MB to K15.00 per MB effective 3rd May. Enjoy the widest 4G network in Malawi. Airtel.”

This is a welcome development because mobile phone tariffs have been way too exorbitant in this country.

The airtime that Malawians buy has been having no meaning at all.

Malawians have been bemoaning that saying service providers need to modify their charges.

Malawians have been saying mobile phone service providers have not been considerate of their customers as airtime just disappears into thin air without one engaging in any meaningful discussion.

International Telecommunications Union (ITU) report indicates that on average Malawians use more than $12 (approximately K9,000) a month on airtime for mobile phones.

This is way beyond a living standard considering that that amount of money can be channeled towards priority areas in his family such as food.

In a bid to bring down the charges in the telecommunications sector, the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) commissioned an independent survey to analyse market trends.

Part of the recommendations presented by the experts was to increase competition in the sector, currently dominated by two operators, TNM and Airtel Malawi and that Government needs to intervene to bring down the tariffs that have made consumers incur high phone costs.

Macra in in 2017 developed a cost model and pricing framework for telecoms services for wholesale and retail telecommunication services in order to enhance competition among operators in Malawi.