Namibia’s cell phone rates compared

Last week we received a notice from Milton Louw, founder of the Namibia Consumer Protection Group which shows that, over the past year or so, Namibia’s cell phone charges have been reduced to become among the most affordable on the continent. This is based upon research by ICT Africa. The table (right) shows where Namibian stand in relation to our African neighbours. Here is the notice by Louw, reproduced in full:

In these troubling times and comparisons of costs in other countries, it is a little bit of comfort to realise that as Namibian consumers we have had some success. The following is taken from the ‘Africa Prepaid Mobile Price Index 2012: South Africa’ study by Research ICT Africa ‘Not long ago, South Africa and Namibia shared the same mobile termination rates and had similar end-user prices. Today, Namibia enjoys amongst the cheapest mobile prepaid prices in Africa, as a result of the slashing of its termination rates close to cost, which pressured the incumbents towards cost-based pricing, thereby increasing demand and remaining highly profitable.South African prepaid mobile prices are three times more expensive than in Namibia.The most dramatic shift in prices was that of Namibia – the result of aggressive price reductions by the dominant operator MTC following systematic interconnection rate reductions towards cost-based termination rates. In June 2011, MTC launched a N$0,38 campaign for calls across networks with 100 free SMSs a day, subject to recharging of at least N$ 5.In Namibia, mobile termination rates were cut from N$1,06 to N$0,30 (ZAR 0,30) in less than two years.’From the Namibia Consumer Protection Group (NCPG), I must add, a lot of this was thanks to Dr Christoph Stork in cooperation with the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology.