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Oliver Kazunga  Acting Business Editor
THE country’s three mobile phone operators are today expected to reduce their tariffs to 15 cents per minute from 23 cents across networks in line with the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority’s (Potraz) directive.While NetOne and Telecel have indicated their intent to comply with Potraz’s directive by publishing their new rates effective today, the country’s leading telecommunications company, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, has not indicated its position on the directive.

Subscribers calling on Telecel to Telecel will be charged 15 cents, Telecel to Econet 16 cents, Telecel to NetOne 16 cents and Telecel to Tel-One 16 cents.

NetOne to NetOne tariffs will be 15 cents per minute while across other networks; the charge will be 16 cents per minute.

Asked about their position on the tariff reduction directive yesterday, Econet corporate communications manager Ranga Mberi said: “We can’t comment on the issue.”

In October last year, Potraz directed all phone operators to reduce charges for voice calls and set January 1, 2015 as the deadline for operators to comply.

The tariff reduction directive was part of Potraz implementation of a new pricing structure called the Long Run Incremental Cost (LRIC) model presented in June 2014.

Potraz said the new framework for tariff calculation was cost based.

The regulatory authority’s acting director-general Baxton Sirewu told this paper last week that it was trite that costs of providing services differ from operator to operator depending on the network efficiency among a number of key variables.

He said the resultant tariff may differ between and among the concerned operators.

The reduction in tariffs has been effected by Potraz as a direct response to an outcry from subscribers who felt the rates were high.

The averages for other countries are 16 cents in South Africa, 17 cents in Malawi and 15 cents in Tanzania.

Potraz adopted the LRIC model in order to come up with call tariffs and abandoned the previously used cositu model.

Cositu is software designed for calculating telephone service costs and is now outdated.