[mw-reg-national-l] Malawi has the most expensive 1GB of data - is it true?

Thu Jul 9 08:16:27 CAT 2020

Dear All,

We came across the trail of e-mails below, this report is a misrepresentation of what is on the ground. I just picked one package, FreedomPLUS - MK57,500 for 165GB works out to be MK348.48 per GB (US$0.46 per GB, using MK750 as an exchange rate).

Elias.

Globe Internet

www.globem.net <http://www.globem.net> 

From: mispa-l [mailto:mispa-l-bounces at sdnp.org.mw] On Behalf Of Faizal Okhai
Sent: Wednesday, July 8, 2020 3:01 PM
To: mispa-l at sdnp.org.mw <mailto:mispa-l at sdnp.org.mw> 
Cc: malawi-isoc-chapter at chambo4.sdnp.org.mw <mailto:malawi-isoc-chapter at chambo4.sdnp.org.mw> ; bessie at clcom.net <mailto:bessie at clcom.net> ; mw-reg-national-l at sdnp.org.mw <mailto:mw-reg-national-l at sdnp.org.mw> ; mispa-chair at mix.mw <mailto:mispa-chair at mix.mw> ; info at macra.org.mw <mailto:info at macra.org.mw> ; NELLIE NSEULA
Subject: Re: [mispa-l] [malawi-isoc-chapter] [mw-reg-national-l] Malawi has the most expensive 1GB of data - is it true?

Gentlemen

Access is at K6 per mb on PAYG and bundles start at K1,000 for 3GB

Further information can be found at access.mw/bundles

Thanks & Regards,

Faizal Okhai | Director | Access Communications | +265 (0) 212 100 001 

On 7 Jul 2020, at 20:17, Josiah Chavula <josiahchavula at gmail.com <mailto:josiahchavula at gmail.com> > wrote:

Hi Bessie,

It appears the report was based on pay-as-you-go prices, which are indeed much higher. TNM indicates K25/MB on PAYG [1] , which translates to K25,000 for 1GB (circa $34 for 1GB). For bundle prices, data from Research ICT Africa <https://researchictafrica.net/ramp_indices_portal/>  [2] indicates the price of 1GB prepaid data in Malawi was around $4.84 by Q4 of 2019. 

Bottom line: those who cannot afford the large data bundles (the lowest income individuals) are the ones paying exorbitant prices for Internet access.

Regards,

Josiah

[1] https://www.tnm.co.mw/ui/tnm-october/index.php/price-plans?tab=data

[2] https://researchictafrica.net/ramp_indices_portal/ 

On Tue, Jul 7, 2020 at 7:05 PM Bessie Nyirenda <bessie at clcom.net <mailto:bessie at clcom.net> > wrote:

Dear Dr. Nyirenda

What is the source of data that Carmen Ang used to compile this statistics? From visiting the two mobile operator sites I find that daily 1GB data costs K1800 compared to weekly K2500 and TNM monthly rate of K3500. Using reserve bank rate of K 744 to a dollar this is only US$ 2.42, US$3.36, and US$4.70, daily, weekly, monthly respectively. These rates are still high for Malawian especially now that with Covid-19 requirement to work and transact more business online.The providers should halve these prices.

Unless the  source of data and year of such source is different, I would write Carmen for clarity and source of data and point her to the mobile providers websites. 

Regards

Bessie Nyirenda

On Mon, Jul 6, 2020 at 6:45 PM Dr P Nyirenda <paulos at sdnp.org.mw <mailto:paulos at sdnp.org.mw> > wrote:

Some Malawians in the diaspora have been complaining to me that Malawi has the most expensive 1GB of mobile data in the world and are citing this web page:

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cost-of-mobile-data-worldwide/

an extract of which says the following:

... """"The Most Expensive Countries for 1 GB of Data

On the other end of the spectrum, here are the top five most expensive countries for one gigabyte of mobile data:

Overall Rank    Country           Average price of 1GB (USD)

155      🇲🇼 Malawi        $27.41

154      🇧🇯 Benin           $27.22

153      🇹🇩 Chad           $23.33

152      🇾🇪 Yemen         $15.98

151      🇧🇼 Botswana    $13.87

A striking trend worth noting is that four out of five of the most expensive countries for mobile data are in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). """" ...

So, as practitioners in the ICT sector, is this true?  Do we need to do anything about it ?

Or do we have to influence MACRA to do something about it, as some of those in the  diaspora seem to be indicating?

Regards,

Paulos

======================================

Dr Paulos B Nyirenda

Malawi SDNP PC: http://www.sdnp.org.mw <http://www.sdnp.org.mw/> 

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-- 

Bessie Nyirenda,

P.O. Box 31374.

Capital City

Lilongwe 3. Malawi.

Mobile : 0888842546

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-- 

Josiah Chavula, PhD
Computer Science Department
University of Cape Town
Rondenbosch, Cape Town, South Africa
Tel: +27 21 650 1330
www.josiahchavula.com/ <http://www.josiahchavula.com/> 

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Kind regards,

Elias IMAAN

Chief Commercial Officer

Tel:  +265 882 108 651

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