The problem of communication has been the most critical in my life these days. Considering places I have managed to live with comfort, I find it easier communicating before actually going there. This has been my way of sorting out things even when I was at Mzuzu University managing Ultinets ISP. The way of communicating was not with expensive means but the same free google talk. Sometimes the network was always slow at Mzuni but stable enough for gtalk. Now out of office and out school, I have often found my blackberry 8800, very convenient and cheap than going to a cafe.
With my HTC Legend the cost of operation has been a little expensive compared to the blackberry. TNM network advertised a good solution(net mobile unlimited) which would put the blackberry out of business looking at the range of smartphones available which offer a wide variety of functionality than the blackberry. Unfortunately, the 'unlimited' as limited as 20mb is to a phone. I finish it in 4hrs just browsing and no downloads on my HTC. If I do tethering, it finishes in around 1 minute. So yeah, very limited and expensive. (maybe its success is little because people were promised much and get so little.)
I thought Zain would think better to introduce an unlimited data bundle with their 3G. So then those who can't afford the BMW of phones(blackberry) or would rather prefer the Mercedes Benzs and the rest of Phones could also be happy with an unlimited data bundle. But I guess they already have a mind of their own.
I should say that these smartphones are very under utilized and expensive on volume bound data plans. There battery life also reduces as so much power is used to try to synchronize in the background when the volume is exhausted.
The 20mb at K80 is much better pricewise than at K150 but it is not easy to find out how much one is using for the Zain bundle than it is for tnm. As such, it is better to remain with what is accountable than to use something blindly. Both are supposed to expire in 24hrs and are used in less than 24hrs. How does one know he is using what he has bought? So in the end the cost of blindly using a service is much worse than using with full knowledge and acceptance for at least you use it with trust and peace of mind having considered all the risks.
So Zain advertises that they are cutting down the price by 56% it becomes very comparatively welcome and also a fulfillment of the promise to increase talk time to 200 minutes a day which our colleagues in India use 400 minutes. The advert puts out 56% slash down but the tariff is in fact 56% increase. Yesterday, I thought it was a mathematical mistake, but I today, having spoken to their call centre which is at their head office in Lilongwe, I am not sure it is a mistake. I visited the former head office in Blantyre and was directed to Chichiri shop where it was confirmed that the highest charge was 39cents per minute. He could not tell me their standard rate but insisted on telling me according to my tariff plan.
In my economic use of communication tools I made calculations for the tariffs of all telecoms providers and found that the most expensive was the Zain peak tariff on macheza. But coupling with family and friends and off peak it was bearable and almost economic looking at the fact the communication with other networks was comparatively lower and not far from the home network tariff. The most expensive has been, in my observation having converted all tariffs to Kwacha, K33 and the lowest K9. Access communications must have started at K30 for this may have been perceived as being on the lower side than the competition.
Taking the K33/min as previous price and increasing by 56% I find K51.48. This much closer to their current tariff per minute. But if I slash this down by 56 percent, I get K14.52.
Here is the most accurate presentation:
On rewardz, 1 min costs 23 points and 1 sms costs 10 units. In Kwacha:
1 min costs 23 x K1.40 = K32.20
56% increase is K32.20 + (K32.20 x 56/100) = K50.23
56% decrease is K32.20 - (K32.20 x 56/100) = K14.168
So that means the previous price was between K32.20 and K33, since the current 56 percent increase is between K50.23 and K51.48.
This means that the decrease should be between K14.168 and K14.52. In other words we should be paying around K14 during peak hours and even lower off peak.
Why have I chosen K1.40 not K1.60? I think it suffices for K1.50, which is wholesalers price of 1 unit, gives 1 min costing K34.50 whose 56% increase is K53.82. So the cost of one unit is between K1.40 and K1.50.
Does having many companies to encourage competition help? TNM has advertised their tariff to be K22 off-peak and K52 peak-time emulating Zain's error. I guess they expect that after advertising there is a large population that has not noticed the blinding difference so that the fewer population that does notice this should be easily frustrated. Clever? No cheating themselves. People are not happy. They have complained and no nobody is listening and nobody is taking action.
Is CAMA seeing this? When people remain silent it is just means that they suffer in silence.
Does Macra allow these two networks to keep licences of operation after all their exploitation they have done on the citizens of this nation? It is bad to do business this way. There are many laws of fair trade violated and whoever is responsible for enforcing fair trade laws do something please. It does not have to take an individual to complain for a regulatory body to take action. But just the regulatory body to observe laws being broken and make corrections. If they are deliberate violations or violations out of ignorance, correction is still important though retribution might be different. Zain has had a warning before. It's now a different company but most management and probably legal advisers are the same and if the company keeps records, it is aware of the warnings for change of ownership does not discard the company's previous records.
Emulating they way of it's fairness, Zain after having left their customers with negative points for redeeming rewardz which Zain thinks the customers haven't earned (is it a small thing to endure these instabilities during change overs), Zain would only be fair to return to its customers all the money it has overly earned during this period of their mathematical or deliberate error. TNM should also return to its customers what it has overly earned imitating Zain's error.
Further, may they refund all the costs incurred by its customers during their times of instability.
I hope this as fair as fair should be.
Let not men suffer for the sake of companies if companies can't suffer for men. Further, let men not suffer for any reason on behalf of companies. I might add and say let companies suffer on behalf of men as men have for companies.