By Joseph Dumbula But, while we commend these internet provisions by our companies, we should agree here that: It’s possible to have cheaper, affordable, consistent, improved and better services. Give that all adjectives that imply affordability.
Isn’t this an opportunity enough to look into why we have high-priced services that are not even dependable?
Why are our internet packages that high and wouldn’t these latest provisions mean that it is possible to have cheaper internet?
According to a story by Deutsche Welle, Malawi is an extreme example of inflated prices. One gigabyte of mobile data here costs an average of $27.41, according to Cable UK. The United Nations recommends that this amount of data should cost no more than 2% of gross national income per capita. In Malawi, the equivalent cost is 87%.
Malawi is the fifth most expensive country for mobile data, according to a global league table done last year, a feat expert view as implying that access to the internet is a luxury.
Over the years, there have been lots of concerns online, some of which have triggered viral campaigns like #DataMustFall. In addition, lawmakers have a lot taken time to weigh in on the matter.
There was also a concern by Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, Youth and Society and Rights Education Programme as well as Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa, in 2020 that over 17.5% value-added tax (VAT) on mobile phones, 16.5% on internet services and an additional 10% excise duty on text messages and internet data transfers introduced in 2015.
According to the organizations, a monthly data bundle of 10GB costs MK15, 500 through Airtel and TNM, and this equates to approximately half the monthly income of the average Malawian.
This has affected not just access to information, but also a situation in which the nation has not as much capitalized on global trends on the nature of this useful global village.
In a more recent move, the mobile operators have put the new cost of 1GB to 4GB bundles are down by between 10% and 31% across the country’s two leading internet service providers – Airtel and TNM.
By 2019, a National Household Survey on Access and Usage of ICT Services in Malawi, stated that internet penetration stood at 14.6%, of which 40.7% of users were in urban areas while 9.3% were in rural areas.
Further, the findings are that the majority of internet users (96.8%) accessed the internet via mobile phones compared to 11.8% who connected via a laptop or a desktop computer.
But now, the debate has arisen on whether hailing the operators is rightful and that such a drop in the charges meant the gap had no explanation.
Otherwise, with all the debates about capping and not, that drop should be questionable anyway.
Joseph Dumbula-Blog 